Daniel 1–12

Chapter 1

The Choice Young Men

¹In the third year of the reign of ^aJehoiakim king of Judah, ^bNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

²The ^aLord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the ^bvessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of ^cShinar, to the house of his ¹god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his ^dgod.

³Then the king ¹ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his ²officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the ³royal ^afamily and of the nobles,

⁴youths in whom was ^ano defect, who were good-looking, showing ^bintelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for ¹serving in the king’s ²court; and he ordered him to teach them the ³literature and ^clanguage of the ^dChaldeans.

⁵The king appointed for them a daily ration from the ^aking’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be ¹educated three years, at the end of which they were to ^2benter the king’s personal service.

⁶Now among them from the sons of Judah were ^aDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

⁷Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name ^aBelteshazzar, to Hananiah ^bShadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.

Daniel’s Resolve

⁸But Daniel ¹made up his mind that he would not ^adefile himself with the ^bking’s choice food or with the ^cwine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

⁹Now God granted Daniel ^1afavor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials,

¹⁰and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would ¹make me forfeit my head to the king.”

¹¹But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,

¹²“Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be ^agiven some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

¹³“Then let our appearance be ¹observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

¹⁴So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.

¹⁵At the end of ten days their appearance seemed ^abetter and ¹they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.

¹⁶So the overseer continued to ¹withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept ^agiving them vegetables.

¹⁷As for these four youths, ^aGod gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of ¹literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of ^bvisions and dreams.

¹⁸Then at the end of the days which the king had ¹specified ²for presenting them, the commander of the officials ³presented them before Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁹The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like ^aDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they ^1bentered the king’s personal service.

²⁰As for every matter of ^awisdom ¹and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ^bten times ^cbetter than all the ^2dmagicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.

²¹And Daniel ¹continued until the ^afirst year of Cyrus the king.

Chapter 2

The King’s Forgotten Dream

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

²Then 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.

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

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

⁵The 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.”

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

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

⁹that 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.”

¹⁰The 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.”

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

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

¹⁴Then 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;

¹⁵he 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.

¹⁶So 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.

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

¹⁸so 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

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

²⁰Daniel 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.”

²⁴Therefore, 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.”

²⁵Then 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!”

²⁶The 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?”

²⁷Daniel 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,

³³its 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;

³⁸and 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…