Daniel 2:1–23

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.”