1And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit (ruach) was troubled, and his sleep was gone from him.
2And the king said to call the magicians, and the enchanters, and 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 (ruach) is 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 word from me is assured: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be made into pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
6But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from before me gifts and reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation."
7They answered a second time and said, "Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare its interpretation."
8The king answered and said, "Of a truth I know that you are buying time, inasmuch as you see that the word from me is assured;
9that if you do not make known to me the dream, there is one decree (dat) for you; and you have agreed to speak before me a lying and corrupt word, until the time changes; therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can declare to me its interpretation."
10The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, "There is not a man upon the dry land who can declare the king's matter; inasmuch as no great and mighty king has asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter, or Chaldean.
11And the thing that the king asks is hard, and there is no other who can declare it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh (basar)."
12Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and said to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
13And the decree (dat) went forth, and the wise men were being slain; and they sought Daniel and his companions to be slain.
14Then Daniel returned counsel and discretion to Arioch the chief of the executioners of the king, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon;
15he answered and said to Arioch the officer of the king, "Why is the decree (dat) so urgent from before the king?" Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel.
16And Daniel went in and asked from the king that he would give him time, 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 before the God of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
19Then to Daniel in a vision of the night the secret was revealed. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
20Daniel answered and said, "Let the name of God be blessed from everlasting and to everlasting; for wisdom and might, they are His.
21And 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 know understanding.
22He reveals the deep things and the hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.
23To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, that You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You; for You have made known to us the king's matter."
24Because of this Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus to him, "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will declare the interpretation to the king."
25Then Arioch in haste brought Daniel in before the king, and said thus to him, "I have found a man from the sons of the exile of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation."
26The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?"
27Daniel answered before the king and said, "The secret which the king asks, wise men, enchanters, magicians, diviners are not able to declare to the king;
28but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, are these:
29You, O king, your thoughts came up upon your bed about what should be after this; and the Revealer of secrets has made known to you what shall be.
30And as for me, not by wisdom that is in me more than any living (chai) was this secret revealed to me, but to the intent that the interpretation should be made known to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your heart.
31You, O king, were looking, and behold, a single great image. This image was great, and its brightness surpassing, standing before you; and its appearance was terrible.
32As for this image, 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 part of them of iron and part of them of clay.
34You were looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the image upon its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.
35Then together were crushed the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, and they became like chaff from the summer threshing-floors; and the spirit (ruach) carried them away, and no place was found for them; and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled all the earth.
36This is the dream; and its interpretation we will tell before the king.
37You, O king, are a king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory;
38and wherever the sons of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, He has given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all; you are the head of gold.
39And after you shall arise another kingdom, lower than you; and a third kingdom, another, of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.
40And a fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things; and as iron that breaks all these, it shall crush and break.
41And whereas you saw the feet and the toes, part of them potter's clay and part of them iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but there shall be in it of the firmness of the iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with the miry clay.
42And the toes of the feet, part of them iron and part of them clay; part of the kingdom shall be strong, and part of it shall be broken.
43And whereas you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave, this one with that one, even as iron does not mingle with clay.
44And in the days of those kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to another people; it shall crush and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
45Inasmuch as you saw that from the mountain a stone was cut out without hands, and it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall be after this; and the dream is sure, and its interpretation trustworthy."
46Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and did homage to Daniel, and commanded to pour out to him an offering and sweet incense.
47The king answered Daniel and said, "Of a truth, your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you were able to reveal this secret."
48Then 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 prefects over all the wise men of Babylon.
49And Daniel asked from the king, and he appointed over the work of the province of Babylon Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; but Daniel was in the gate of the king.