Daniel 2

¹And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him.

²And the king commanded to summon the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams; and they came and stood before the king.

³And the king said to them: I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

⁴And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.

⁵The king answered and said to the Chaldeans: The matter is irrevocable from me. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.

⁶But if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you will receive gifts and reward and great honor from before me; so tell me the dream and its interpretation.

⁷They answered a second time and said, O king, let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare its interpretation.

⁸The king answered and said, I know for certain that you are buying time, because you see that the matter has gone out from me as settled.

⁹For if you do not make the dream known to me, there is one sentence for you: you have conspired to speak a lying and corrupt word before me, waiting until the time changes; so tell me the dream, and I will know that you can declare its interpretation to me.

¹⁰The Chaldeans answered before the king and said: There is no man on earth who is able to make known the matter of the king, because no great and mighty king has asked a matter like this of any magician, enchanter, or Chaldean.

¹¹And the matter that the king asks is difficult, and there is no other who can make it known before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.

¹²Because of this the king became very angry and furious, and he commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

¹³And the decree went out and the wise men were being slain; and they sought Daniel and his companions to be killed.

¹⁴Then Daniel replied with discretion and wisdom to Arioch, chief of the royal guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.

¹⁵He answered and said to Arioch, the officer of the king, Why is the decree so urgent from before the king? Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel.

¹⁶And Daniel went in and requested from the king that time be given him, that he might declare the interpretation to the king.

¹⁷Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions.

¹⁸and to seek compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

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

²⁰Daniel answered and said: Let the name of God be blessed from forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his.

²¹And he changes times and seasons; he removes kings and raises up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

²²He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him.

²³O God of my fathers, I thank and praise you, who gave me wisdom and might; and now you have made known to me what we asked of you, that you made known to us the matter of the king.

²⁴Because of this Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon, and went and said to him thus: Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me before the king, and I will make known to the king the interpretation.

²⁵Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel before the king and said to him thus: I have found a man from among the exiles of Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king.

²⁶The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream that I saw and its interpretation?

²⁷Daniel answered before the king and said, The mystery that the king has asked, wise men, enchanters, magicians, and diviners cannot declare to the king.

²⁸Nevertheless, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head on your bed — this is it.

²⁹You, O king, your thoughts arose on your bed as to what would happen hereafter; and the revealer of mysteries made known to you what will be.

³⁰But as for me, it is not because of any wisdom that is in me more than in any living person that this mystery was revealed to me, but rather so that the interpretation might be made known to the king and that you might know the thoughts of your heart.

³¹You, O king, were gazing, and behold, a great image! This image was great, and its radiance exceedingly brilliant; it stood before you, and its appearance was terrifying.

³²As for this statue — its head was 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.

³⁴You were looking until a stone was cut out, not by hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and shattered them.

³⁵Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all crushed together and became like chaff from summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled all the earth.

³⁶This is the dream, and its interpretation we will declare before the king.

³⁷You, O king, are a king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given kingdom, power, might, and honor.

³⁸and in all places where the sons of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the flying things of the sky, he has given into your hand and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.

³⁹And after you will arise another kingdom inferior to you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze which will rule over all the earth.

⁴⁰And the fourth kingdom will be strong as iron; for as iron crushes and shatters everything, and as iron breaks all these, so it will crush and shatter.

⁴¹And as for what you saw, the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron — it will be a divided kingdom, but it will have some of the hardness of iron in it, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with the earthen clay.

⁴²And the toes of the feet, partly of iron and partly of clay — the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.

⁴³And as you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they will mix with one another through the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay.

⁴⁴And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

⁴⁵Inasmuch as you saw that from the mountain a stone was cut out, not by hands, and it shattered the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold — the great God has made known to the king what will be hereafter. The dream is certain and its interpretation trustworthy.

⁴⁶Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face before Daniel and paid him homage; and he commanded that an offering and incense be presented to him.

⁴⁷The king answered Daniel and said, Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you were able to reveal this mystery.

⁴⁸Then the king made Daniel great and gave him many great gifts and made him ruler over all the province of Babylon, and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

⁴⁹And Daniel asked of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the administration of the province of Babylon; and Daniel remained at the gate of the king.