1In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ²And the Lord gave Jehoiakim the king of Judah into his hand and some of^a of the utensils of the temple of God,^b and he brought them to the land of Shinar to the temple of his gods, and he brought the utensils to the treasury^c of his gods.

³And the king ordered^d Ashpenaz, the commander of his court officials, to bring some of the Israelites^e from the royal family^f and from the lords,^g ⁴youths who have no physical defect,^h and who are handsome,ⁱ and who are prudent^j in all wisdom and endowed with knowledge,^k and who understand insight, and who have the ability^l in them to serve in the palace of the king. And the king ordered him to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. ⁵And the king assigned to them his daily portion^m from the fine food of the king, and from the wine that he drank,ⁿ and instructed that they were to be educated for three years.^o And at the end of their training, they were to be stationed^p before^q the king. ⁶Now there was among them from the Judeans,^r Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. ⁷And the commander of the court officials gave them names, and he called Daniel, Belteshazzar; and Hananiah, Shadrach; and Mishael, Meshach; and Azariah, Abednego.

Daniel’s Resolve

⁸Now Daniel resolved^s that he would not defile himself with the fine food of the king, and with the wine that he drank,^t and so he requested from the commander of the court officials permission so that he would not defile himself. ⁹And God^u gave Daniel favor and compassion before^v the commander of the court officials, ¹⁰and the commander of the court officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord, the king, who has determined your food and your drink, for why should^w he see your face having a worse appearance than the young men who are your age?^x Then you will endanger my head with the king.” ¹¹Then^y Daniel asked the guard^z whom the commander of the court officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹²“Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us some of the vegetables,^a and let us eat and let us drink water. ¹³Then^b let our appearances and the appearance of the young men who are eating the fine food of the king be compared before you,^c and then deal with your servants according to what you see.”^d ¹⁴So he agreed to this proposal with them, and he tested them for ten days. ¹⁵And at the end of ten days their appearances appeared better and they were healthier of body than all the young men who were eating the fine food of the king. ¹⁶So^e the guard continued to withhold^f their fine food and the wine of their drink, and he gave them^g vegetables.

¹⁷And as for these four young men,^h Godⁱ gave to them knowledge and insight into all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had insight into all visions^j and dreams. ¹⁸And at the end of the time the king had set to bring them, the commander of the court officials brought them in before^k Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹And the king spoke with them, and among all of them no one was found like^l Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; then they stood before^m the king. ²⁰And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired from them, he found them ten times better than all of the magiciansⁿ and conjurers^o that were in his entire kingdom.^p ²¹And Daniel was there until the first year of Cyrus the king.

The King’s Troubling Dream

2Now^a in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. ²So the king said to call the magicians^b and the conjurers^c and the sorcerers and the astrologers^d to tell to the king his dreams. And they came in and they stood before^e the king. ³And the king said to them, “I have had a dream^f and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.”

⁴And the astrologers^g said to the king in Aramaic,^h “O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants and we will reveal the explanation.” ⁵The king answered and said to the astrologers,ⁱ “The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its explanation,^j then you will be broken into pieces and your houses will be laid in ruins. ⁶But if you tell me the dream and its explanation, you will receive gifts and rewards^k and great honor from me. Therefore, tell me the dream and its explanation.”^l ⁷They answered once more and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants and we will make the explanation known.” ⁸The king answered and said, “Certainly^m I know that you are trying to gain timeⁿ because^o you have seen that this matter is firmly decreed by me,^p ⁹for if you do not make the dream known to me, your verdict is fixed,^q and you have conspired to say a lying and deceitful word to me until the circumstances^r will change. Therefore, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can tell me its explanation.” ¹⁰The astrologers^s answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth that is able to reveal the word of the king; in fact,^t no great and powerful king has ever asked a thing like this of any magician^u or conjurer^v or astrologer.^w ¹¹And the thing that the king is asking is too difficult and there is no one who^x can reveal it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with mortals.”^y

¹²Because of this the king became angry, and he became very much enraged, and he said that all the wise men of Babylon are to be destroyed. ¹³And the decree was issued, and the wise men were on the verge of being executed,^z and they searched for Daniel and his companions to be executed. ¹⁴Then Daniel responded prudently and discretely to Arioch, the commander of the imperial guard of the king, who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁵He asked^a and said to Arioch, the royal official of the king, “Why^b is the decree from the king so severe?” Then Arioch explained the matter^c to Daniel. ¹⁶And Daniel went in and requested from the king that he would give him time, and he would tell the king^d the explanation.^e

¹⁷Then Daniel went to his home, and he made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, his companions, ¹⁸and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven^f concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions, along with the remainder of the wise men of Babylon, would not be killed.

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

²⁰Daniel said:^g

“Let his name, the name of God,^h be blessed throughout the ages,ⁱ

for the wisdom and the power are his.^j

²¹And he changes the times and the seasons,

and he deposes kings and he sets up kings;

he gives wisdom^k to wise men

and knowledge to men who know understanding.

²²He 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 ancestors,^l

I give thanks and I give praises,

for the wisdom and the power you gave to me,

and now you have made known to me

what we have asked from you,

for you have made known to us the matter of the king.”

Daniel Praises God and Interprets the King’s Dream

²⁴Therefore^m Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointedⁿ to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and thus he said to him: “You must not destroy the wise men of Babylon; take me in before the king and I will give the explanation^o to the king.”

²⁵Then Arioch quickly^p brought Daniel in before the king and thus he said to him: “I have found a man among the exiles^q of Judah^r who can relate^s the explanation^t to the king.” ²⁶The king then asked^u and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its explanation?”^v ²⁷Daniel answered the king and said, “The mystery that the king asks, no wise men, conjurers,^w magicians,^x or diviners are able to make known to the king. ²⁸But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what it is that will be at the end of days. This is your dream and the visions of your head on your bed.

²⁹“As for you, king,^y your thoughts on your bed turned to^z what it was that would be in the future,^a and the revealer of mysteries has made known to you what that would be. ³⁰And as for me, it is not because of wisdom that is in me more than any other living person^b that this mystery is revealed to me, but in order that^c the explanation^d may be made known to the king and you will understand^e the thoughts of your mind.^f

³¹“You, O king, were looking and, look, there was one great statue. This statue was huge and its brilliance extraordinary, standing there before you, and its appearance was frightening.^g ³²The head of this statue was of fine gold, its chest and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, ³³its legs of iron, its feet, part of them of iron and part of them of clay. ³⁴You were looking on until^h a stone was chiseled outⁱ—that not by hands—and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and it broke them in pieces. ³⁵Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold all at once^j broke into pieces^k and they became like chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away and any trace of them could not be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and it filled the whole earth.

³⁶“This was the dream, and now we will tell its interpretation to the king. ³⁷You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power and the might and the glory, ³⁸and also human beings wherever they dwell,^l the animals of the field and the birds^m of heavenⁿ—he has given into your hand and made you ruler over all of them—you are the head of gold. ³⁹And after you another kingdom inferior to yours will arise, and another third kingdom of bronze that will rule over the…

Read in Logos

This passage has been shortened. Keep reading Daniel 1–12 in Logos

Footnotes

aLiterally “from the end/extremity/limits”
bHebrew “the God”
cLiterally “the house of the treasury”
dLiterally “said to”
eLiterally “from the sons/children of Israel”
fLiterally “from the seed of the kingship”
gOr “nobles”
hLiterally “there is not in them any physical defect”
iLiterally “good/pleasing of appearance”
jOr “insightful”
kLiterally “who have knowledge of knowledge”
lLiterally “strength”
mLiterally “the portion of the day on its day”
nLiterally “the wine of his drink”
oLiterally “and to be educated them years three”
pLiterally “they would stand”
qLiterally “to the face of”
rLiterally “from the children of Judah”
sLiterally “Daniel placed upon his heart”
tLiterally “the wine of his drink”
uHebrew “the God”
vLiterally “to the face of”
wLiterally “to what would”
xLiterally “like your age”; “your” is plural
yHebrew “And”
zOr “overseer”
aLiterally “from the vegetables”
bHebrew “And”
cLiterally “in your presence”
dLiterally “and according to/that you see”
eLiterally “And it happened”
fLiterally “he was … withdrawing”
gHebrew “to them”
hLiterally “And these young men, four of them”
iHebrew “the God”
jHebrew “vision”
kLiterally “to the face of”
lLiterally “and he was not found from all of them like”
mLiterally “to the face of”
nOr “soothsayer-priests”
oOr “enchanters”
pLiterally “in the whole of his kingdom”
aHebrew “And”
bOr “soothsayer-priests”
cOr “enchanters”
dLiterally “Chaldeans”
eLiterally “to the face of”
fLiterally “A dream I have dreamed”
gLiterally “Chaldeans”
hThe text of Daniel is in Aramaic from this point on through Daniel chapter 7. Then the text resumes in Hebrew to the end of the book
iLiterally “Chaldeans”
jOr “interpretation”
kAramaic “reward”
lOr “interpretation”
mLiterally “From a certainty”
nLiterally “the time you are gaining”
oLiterally “all because of that”
pLiterally “that firm from me is the decree”
qLiterally “one is your verdict”
rLiterally “time”
sLiterally “Chaldeans”
tLiterally “all because that”
uOr “soothsayer-priest”
vOr “enchanter”
wLiterally “Chaldean”
xLiterally “there is not another”
yLiterally “concerning their dwelling is not with flesh”
zLiterally “were in the process of being killed”
aLiterally “he answered”
bLiterally “Over what”
cOr “situation”
dLiterally “to tell/reveal to the king”
eOr “interpretation”
fLiterally “from before the God of the heaven”
gLiterally “answered and he said”
hAramaic “the God”
iLiterally “from the age unto the age”
jLiterally “of to him it is”
kAramaic “the wisdom”
lOr “fathers”
mLiterally “Now because this”
nAramaic “has appointed”
oOr “interpretation”
pLiterally “in haste”
qLiterally “the children of exiles”
rAramaic “Jehud”
sLiterally “he will make known”
tOr “interpretation”
uLiterally “The king answered”
vOr “interpretation”
wOr “enchanters”
xOr “soothsayer-priests”
yAramaic “the king”
zLiterally “they went up”
aLiterally “after this”
bLiterally “all of living beings”
cLiterally “concerning the matter of”
dOr “interpretation”
eLiterally “know”
fLiterally “heart”
gOr “dreadful”
hLiterally “until that”
iOr “became loose”
jLiterally “like one”
kOr “were crushed”
lLiterally “and into all that dwell sons of humankind”
mAramaic “bird”
nOr “the sky”