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.