 1 In the second year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams in which his spirit was troubled and he could not sleep. 2 The king commanded to call to the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans to interpret+ the kings dreams. So they came and stood before the king. 3 The king said to them, I have dreamed a dream and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. 4 The Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream and we will reveal the meaning. 5 The king said to the Chaldeans, The thing has gone from me. If you will not make known to me the dream with its meaning, you will be made into mere members and your houses will be made a dunghill. 6 But if you make known the dream and its meaning, you shall receive gifts and a present and great honor from me. Therefore reveal to me the dream and its meaning. 7 They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will reveal its meaning. 8 The king said, I know of certainty that you want to gain time, because you see the thing is gone from me. 9 But if you will not make the dream known to me, there is only one judgment for you. For you have prepared lying and deceiving words to speak before me until the time has changed. Therefore tell me the dream and I will know that you can reveal its meaning to me. 10 The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man on the earth who can reveal the king's matter, because there is no king, lord, or ruler who has asked such a thing from any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. 11 It is a rare thing that the king asks and there is no other who can reveal it before the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. 12 For this reason, the king was enraged and angered and commanded all the wise men of Babylon to be destroyed. 13 The law went out that the wise men should be killed and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be killed. 14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and insight to Arioch the chief of the king's executioners who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. 15 He said to Arioch, the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. 16 Then Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time and he would make known the meaning to the king. 17 Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. 18 He asked that they pray for the mercies of God in Heaven concerning this secret so that Daniel and his companions should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision, and Daniel blessed the God of Heaven. 20 Daniel said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. 21 He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. 22 He reveals the deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness. Light lives with Him. 23 I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers who has given me wisdom and might. You have made known to me now what we asked of you. You have now made the king's matter known to us. 24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had chosen to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He said this to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me in before the king and I will declare the meaning to the king. 25 Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel in before the king and said to him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make the meaning known to the king. 26 The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its meaning? 27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret that the king has asked cannot be shown to the king by the wise men, astrologers, magicians, or soothsayers. 28 But there is a God in Heaven who reveals secrets and will make known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions in your head upon your bed are these. 29 As for you, O king, your thoughts came on your bed, what should happen after this. He who reveals secrets makes known to you what will happen. 30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living man, but so that the meaning might be known to the king and so that you might know the thoughts of your heart. 31 You, O king, were seeing a great image. That great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you and its form was dreadful. 32 This image's head was of fine gold. His breast and his arms were of silver. His belly and his thighs were of bronze. 33 His legs were of iron. His feet were part of iron and part of clay. 34 You watched until a stone was cut out without hands and struck the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together. They became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that no place was found for them. The stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 36 This is the dream and we will tell its meaning before the king. 37 You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of Heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. 38 Wherever the children of men live, He has given the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens to them. He has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold. 39 After you will arise another kingdom lower than you, and another third kingdom of bronze that will rule over all the earth. 40 The fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron. Since iron crushes and smashes all things, and as the iron that shatters all these, it will crush and shatter. 41 As to what you saw: The feet and toes, part of potters' clay and part of iron, the kingdom will be divided. But there will be in it the strength of the iron, because you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 As the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 As you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they will mix themselves with the descendants of men. But they will not cling to one another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44 In the days of these kings, the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. The kingdom will not be left to other people, but it will crush and destroy all these kingdoms and it will stand forever. 45 Because you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushes the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will occur after this. The dream is certain and its meaning is sure. 46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and worshiped Daniel and he commanded to offer an offering and incense to him. 47 The king answered Daniel and said, It is true that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret. 48 Then the king made Daniel great and gave him many great gifts and made him ruler over all the province of Babylon and chief of the officers over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Then Daniel asked the king and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of the king.
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