Chapter 2

The King’s Forgotten Dream

1 Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar 1ahad dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his bsleep 2left him.

2 Then the king 1gave orders to call in the 2amagicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the 3Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king.

3 The king said to them, “I 1ahad a dream and my spirit 2is anxious to 3understand the dream.”

4 Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in 1aAramaic: “bO king, live forever! cTell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”

5 The king replied to the Chaldeans, “1The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be 2atorn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap.

6 “But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me agifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.”

7 They answered a second time and said, “Let the king atell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”

8 The king replied, “I know for certain that you are 1bargaining for time, inasmuch as you have seen that 2the command from me is firm,

9 that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only aone 1decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt 2words before me until the 3situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may bknow that you can declare to me its interpretation.”

10 The Chaldeans answered 1the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter 2for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any 3amagician, conjurer or Chaldean.

11 “Moreover, the thing which the king demands is 1difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it 2to the king except agods, whose bdwelling place is not with mortal flesh.”

12 Because of this the king became aindignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

13 So the 1decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they looked for aDaniel and his friends to 2kill them.

14 Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to aArioch, the captain of the king’s 1bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon;

15 he said to Arioch, the king’s commander, “For what reason is the 1decree from the king so 2urgent?” Then Arioch informed Daniel about the matter.

16 So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would 1give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king.

17 Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, aHananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter,

18 so that they might arequest compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be bdestroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

The Secret Is Revealed to Daniel

19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night avision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven;

20 Daniel said,

“Let the name of God be ablessed forever and ever,

For bwisdom and power belong to Him.

21 “It is He who achanges the times and the epochs;

He bremoves kings and 1establishes kings;

He gives cwisdom to wise men

And knowledge to 2men of understanding.

22 “It is He who areveals the profound and hidden things;

bHe knows what is in the darkness,

And the clight dwells with Him.

23 “To You, O aGod of my fathers, I give thanks and praise,

For You have given me bwisdom and power;

Even now You have made known to me what we crequested of You,

For You have made known to us the king’s matter.”

24 Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and spoke to him as follows: “aDo not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Take me 1into the king’s presence, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.”

25 Then Arioch hurriedly abrought Daniel 1into the king’s presence and spoke to him as follows: “I have found a man among the 2bexiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!”

26 The king said to Daniel, whose name was aBelteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?”

27 Daniel answered before the king and said, “As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither awise men, conjurers, 1magicians nor diviners are able to declare it to the king.

28 “However, there is a aGod in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the 1blatter days. This was your dream and the cvisions 2in your mind while on your bed.

29 “As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts 1turned to what would take place 2in the future; and aHe who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place.

30 “But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me for any awisdom 1residing in me more than in any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may 2understand the bthoughts of your 3mind.

The King’s Dream

31 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and 1of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was aawesome.

32 “The ahead of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,

33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

34 “You 1continued looking until a astone was cut out bwithout hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and ccrushed them.

35 “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed 1all at the same time and became alike chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that bnot a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great cmountain and filled the whole earth.

The Interpretation—Babylon the First Kingdom

36 “This was the dream; now we will tell aits interpretation before the king.

37 “You, O king, are the aking of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the 1kingdom, the bpower, the strength and the glory;

38 and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the abeasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.

Medo-Persia and Greece

39 “After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.

Rome

40 “Then there will be a afourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces.

41 “In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with 1common clay.

42 “As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.

43 “And in that you saw the iron mixed with 1common clay, they will combine with one another 2in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

The Divine Kingdom

44 “In the days of those kings the aGod of heaven will bset up a ckingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be 1left for another people; it will dcrush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.

45 “Inasmuch as you saw that a astone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the bgreat God has made known to the king what cwill take place 1in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

Daniel Promoted

46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did ahomage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and 1bfragrant incense.

47 The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely ayour God is a bGod of gods and a Lord of kings and a crevealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.”

48 Then the king 1apromoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole bprovince of Babylon and chief 2prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

49 And Daniel made request of the king, and he aappointed bShadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s 1ccourt.