Daniel 1–12

1ST CHAPTER

Daniel and His Friends Remain Faithful to God

¹In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and attacked it. ²The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah and some utensils from God’s temple over to Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar took the utensils to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put them in the temple treasury. 

³The king told Ashpenaz, the chief-of-staff, to bring some of the Israelites, the royal family, and the nobility. ⁴They were to be young men who were healthy, good-looking, knowledgeable in all subjects, well-informed, intelligent, and able to serve in the king’s palace. They were to be taught the language and literature of the Babylonians. 

⁵The king arranged for them to get a daily allowance of the king’s rich food and wine. They were to be trained for three years. After that, they were to serve the king. ⁶Among these young men were some Judeans: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. ⁷The chief-of-staff gave them ⸤Babylonian⸥ names: To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar. To Hananiah he gave the name Shadrach. To Mishael he gave the name Meshach. And to Azariah he gave the name Abednego. 

⁸Daniel made up his mind not to harm himself by eating the king’s rich food and drinking the king’s wine. So he asked the chief-of-staff for permission not to harm himself in this way. 

⁹God made the chief-of-staff kind and compassionate toward Daniel. ¹⁰The chief-of-staff told Daniel, “I’m afraid of my master, the king. The king determined what you should eat and drink. If he sees that you look worse than the other young men your age, he would have my head cut off.” 

¹¹The chief-of-staff put a supervisor in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel said to the supervisor, ¹²“Please test us for ten days. Give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³Then compare us to the young men who are eating the king’s rich food. Decide how to treat us on the basis of how we look.” 

¹⁴The supervisor listened to them about this matter and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵After ten days they looked healthier and stronger than the young men who had been eating the king’s rich food. ¹⁶So the supervisor took away the king’s rich food and wine and gave them vegetables. 

¹⁷God gave these four men knowledge, wisdom, and the ability to understand all kinds of literature. Daniel could also understand all kinds of visions and dreams. 

¹⁸At the end of the three-year training period, the chief-of-staff brought all the young men to Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹The king talked to them and found no one like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah among all of them. So these four men served the king. ²⁰Whenever the king asked them about things that required wisdom and insight, he found that they knew ten times more than all the magicians and psychics in his whole kingdom. 

²¹Daniel served the royal palace until the first year of King Cyrus ⸤of Persia⸥. 

2ND CHAPTER

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream about a Statue Made of Four Metals

¹During the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, he had some dreams. He was troubled, but he stayed asleep. ²The king sent for the magicians, psychics, sorcerers, and astrologers so that they could tell him what he had dreamed. So they came to the king. 

³The king said to them, “I had a dream, and I’m troubled by it. I want to know what the dream was.” 

⁴The astrologers spoke to the king in Aramaic, “Your Majesty, may you live forever! Tell us the dream, and we’ll interpret it for you.” 

⁵The king answered the astrologers, “I meant what I said! If you don’t tell me the dream and its meaning, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be turned into piles of rubble. ⁶But if you tell me the dream and its meaning, I will give you gifts, awards, and high honors. Now tell me the dream and its meaning.” 

⁷Once more they said, “Your Majesty, tell us the dream, and we’ll tell you its meaning.” 

⁸The king replied, “I’m sure you’re trying to buy some time because you know that I meant what I said. ⁹If you don’t tell me the dream, you’ll all receive the same punishment. You have agreed among yourselves to make up a phony explanation to give me, hoping that things will change. So tell me the dream. Then I’ll know that you can explain its meaning to me.” 

¹⁰The astrologers answered the king, “No one on earth can tell the king what he asks. No other king, no matter how great and powerful, has ever asked such a thing of any magician, psychic, or astrologer. ¹¹What you ask is difficult, Your Majesty. No one can tell what you dreamed except the gods, and they don’t live with humans.” 

¹²This made the king so angry and furious that he gave an order to destroy all the wise advisers in Babylon. ¹³So a decree was issued that the wise advisers were to be killed, and some men were sent to find Daniel and his friends and kill them. 

¹⁴While Arioch, the captain of the royal guard, was leaving to kill the wise advisers in Babylon, Daniel spoke to him using shrewd judgment. ¹⁵He asked Arioch, the royal official, “Why is the king’s decree so harsh?” So Arioch explained everything to Daniel. 

¹⁶Daniel went and asked the king to give him some time so that he could explain the dream’s meaning. ¹⁷Then Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about this matter. ¹⁸He told them to ask the God of heaven to be merciful and to explain this secret to them so that they would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise advisers in Babylon. 

¹⁹The secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision during the night. So Daniel praised the God of heaven. ²⁰He said, 

“Praise God’s name from everlasting to everlasting 

because he is wise and powerful. 

²¹He changes times and periods of history. 

He removes kings and establishes them. 

He gives wisdom to those who are wise 

and knowledge to those who have insight. 

²²He reveals deeply hidden things. 

He knows what is in the dark, 

and light lives with him. 

²³God of my ancestors, I thank and praise you. 

You gave me wisdom and power. 

You told me the answer to our question. 

You told us what the king wants to know.” 

²⁴Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy Babylon’s wise advisers. Daniel told him, “Don’t destroy Babylon’s wise advisers. Take me to the king, and I’ll explain the dream’s meaning to him.” 

²⁵Arioch immediately took Daniel to the king. He told the king, “I’ve found one of the captives from Judah who can explain the dream’s meaning to you, Your Majesty.” 

²⁶The king asked Daniel (who had been renamed Belteshazzar), “Can you tell me the dream I had and its meaning?” 

²⁷Daniel answered the king, “No wise adviser, psychic, magician, or fortuneteller can tell the king this secret. ²⁸But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. He will tell King Nebuchadnezzar what is going to happen in the days to come. This is your dream, the vision you had while you were asleep: ²⁹Your Majesty, while you were lying in bed, thoughts about what would happen in the future came to you. The one who reveals secrets told you what is going to happen. ³⁰This secret wasn’t revealed to me because I’m wiser than anyone else. It was revealed so that you could be told the meaning and so that you would know your innermost thoughts. 

³¹“Your Majesty, you had a vision. You saw a large statue. This statue was very bright. It stood in front of you, and it looked terrifying. ³²The head of this statue was made of fine gold. Its chest and arms were made of silver. Its stomach and hips were made of bronze. ³³Its legs were made of iron. Its feet were made partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴While you were watching, a stone was cut out, but not by humans. It struck the statue’s iron-and-clay feet and smashed them. ³⁵Then all at once, the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were smashed. They became like husks on a threshing floor^ain summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a large mountain which filled the whole world. ³⁶This is the dream. Now we’ll tell you its meaning. 

³⁷“Your Majesty, you are the greatest king. The God of heaven has given you a kingdom. He has given you power, strength, and honor. ³⁸He has given you control over people, wild animals, and birds, wherever they live. He has made you ruler of them all. You are the head of gold. ³⁹Another kingdom, inferior to yours, will rise to power after you. Then there will be a third kingdom, a kingdom of bronze, that will rule the whole world. ⁴⁰There will also be a fourth kingdom. It will be as strong as iron. (Iron smashes and shatters everything.) As iron crushes things, this fourth kingdom will smash and crush all the other kingdoms. ⁴¹You also saw the feet and toes. They were partly potters’ clay and partly iron. This means that there will be a divided kingdom which has some of the firmness of iron. As you saw, iron was mixed with clay. ⁴²The toes were partly iron and partly clay. Part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle. ⁴³As you saw, iron was mixed with clay. So the two parts of the kingdom will mix by intermarrying, but they will not hold together any more than iron can mix with clay. 

⁴⁴“At the time of those kings, the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed. No other people will be permitted to rule it. It will smash all the other kingdoms and put an end to them. But it will be established forever. ⁴⁵This is the stone that you saw cut out from a mountain, but not by humans. It smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told you what will happen in the future, Your Majesty. The dream is true, and you can trust that this is its meaning.” 

⁴⁶King Nebuchadnezzar immediately bowed down on the ground in front of Daniel. He ordered that gifts and offerings be given to Daniel. ⁴⁷The king said to Daniel, “Your God is truly the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings. He can…