1In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.
2Then the king said to summon the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
3And the king said to them, “I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.”
4Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: “O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will make known the interpretation.”
5The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be made into pieces, and your houses will be made a dunghill.
6But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts, a reward, and great honor. Therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.”
7They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”
8The king answered and said, “I know for certain that you are buying time, because you see that the word from me is firm—
9that if you do not make known to me the dream, there is but one decree for you. You have agreed together to speak a lying and corrupt word before me until the time changes. Therefore tell me the dream, and I will know that you can declare to me its interpretation.”
10The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, “There is no man on the dry land who is able to declare the king’s matter, since no great and mighty king has ever asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or Chaldean.
11The thing the king asks is difficult, and there is no other who can declare it before the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
12Because of this the king became angry and very furious, and he commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.
13So the decree went out, and the wise men were being killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them.
14Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.
15He answered and said to Arioch, the king’s officer, “Why is the decree so urgent from before the king?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel.
16So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he give him time, and that he might declare the interpretation to the king.
17Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions,
18so that they might seek mercy from before the God of heaven concerning this mystery, that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
19Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
20Daniel answered and said: “May the name of God be blessed from age to age, for wisdom and might are his.
21It is he who changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
22It is he who reveals the deep and the hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.
23To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and now you have made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”
24Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said to him thus: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.”
25Then Arioch brought Daniel in before the king in haste, and said to him thus: “I have found a man among the exiles of Judah who will make known the interpretation to the king.”
26The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I saw and its interpretation?”
27Daniel answered before the king and said, “The mystery that the king asks—no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or diviners are able to declare to the king.
28But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed are these:
29As for you, O king, your thoughts arose upon your bed about what would come to pass hereafter, and the revealer of mysteries has made known to you what will be.
30But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me because of any wisdom that is in me more than in any of the living, but in order that the interpretation might be made known to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your heart.
31You, O king, were watching, and behold, a single great statue. That statue, huge and its brightness surpassing, was standing before you, and its appearance was terrifying.
32As for that statue, its head was of fine gold, its chest and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,
33its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
34You were watching until a stone was cut out—not by hands—and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and shattered them.
35Then at once the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king.
37You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the might, and the honor;
38and wherever the sons of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, he has given into your hand and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.
39And after you another kingdom will arise, inferior to you, and then a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.
40And there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; just as iron crushes and shatters everything, so, like iron that smashes, it will crush and shatter all these.
41And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; yet some of the firmness of iron will be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with the miry clay.
42And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so part of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.
43And as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they will mix with one another through the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.
44And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and the kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush and bring to an end all these kingdoms, but it itself will stand forever.
45Just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain—not by hands—and that it shattered the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will happen after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is trustworthy.
46Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and paid homage to Daniel, and he commanded that an offering and incense be presented to him.
47The king answered Daniel and said, “Truly your God is the God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you were able to reveal this mystery.”
48Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.
49And Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the administration of the province of Babylon; but Daniel remained at the king’s court.
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