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.

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Footnotes

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”