The King’s Forgotten Dream

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

2 Then 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.

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.

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

14 Then 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;

15 he 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.

16 So 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.

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

18 so 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

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

20 Daniel 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.”

24 Therefore, 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.”

25 Then 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!”

26 The 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?”

27 Daniel 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,

33 its 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.