CHAPTER 2

¹And in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingship, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, and his heart pounded and his sleep was ruined. ²And the king said to all the soothsayers and the wizards and the magicians and the Chaldeans to explain the king’s dreams to him, and they came and stood before the king. ³And the king said to them, “I have dreamed a dream, and my heart pounded, wanting to know the dream.” ⁴And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, “May the king live forever! Say the dream to your servants and we shall tell its meaning.” ⁵The king answered and said, “The matter has been determined by me: if you do not explain to me the dream and its meaning, you will be cut to pieces and your houses will be turned into dung-heaps. ⁶But if you tell the dream and its meaning, gifts and presents and great honor you shall receive from me. Therefore tell me the dream and its meaning.” ⁷They answered a second time and said, “Let the king say the dream to his servants and we shall tell its meaning.” ⁸The king answered and said, “Indeed, I know that you are buying time because you have seen that the matter was determined by me. ⁹For if you do not explain the dream to me, there is but one decree for you, and you have prepared a false and lying word to say to me until time passes. Therefore say to me the dream and I shall know that you have told me its meaning.” ¹⁰The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, “There is no man on earth who can tell the word of the king because no great and powerful king has asked a thing like this of any soothsayer or wizard or Chaldean. ¹¹And the matter that the king has asked is grave, and there are no others that can tell it before the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” ¹²Because of this the king raged and was very angry and thought to put to death all the sages of Babylonia. ¹³And a decree was issued that the sages were to be killed, and Daniel and his friends were to be killed. ¹⁴Then did Daniel respond with counsel and insight to Arioch, chief of the king’s executioners, who had gone out to call the sages of Babylonia. ¹⁵He spoke out and said to Arioch, the king’s regent, “For what is this severe decree from the king?” Then Arioch informed Daniel of the matter. ¹⁶And Daniel went and asked of the king that time be given him to tell the meaning to the king. ¹⁷Then Daniel went to his house and informed Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah his friends of the matter ¹⁸to ask mercy of the God of the heavens about this mystery, that Daniel and his friends not perish with the rest of the sages of Babylonia. ¹⁹Then was the mystery revealed to Daniel in a night-vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of the heavens. ²⁰Daniel spoke out and said, “May the name of God be blessed forever and forever, for wisdom and strength are His. ²¹And He changes the times and the seasons, takes kings away and raises up kings, gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who know discernment. ²²He lays bare the deep and hidden things, knows what is in darkness, and light dwells with Him. ²³To You, God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise that You have granted me wisdom and strength, and now You have made known to me that which we asked of You, for the matter of the king You have made known to us.” ²⁴Because of this Daniel came to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to put to death all the sages of Babylonia. He went and thus he said to him, “Do not put to death the sages of Babylonia. Bring me before the king and I will tell the meaning to the king.” ²⁵Then did Arioch rush to bring Daniel before the king, and thus he said to him, “There is a man of the exiles from Judah who will explain the meaning to the king.” ²⁶The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Can you explain to me the dream that I saw and its meaning?” ²⁷Daniel answered before the king, “The mystery of which the king has asked, sages, wizards, soothsayers, and diviners cannot tell the king. ²⁸But there is a God in the heavens Who reveals mysteries and has made known to the king what will be in the latter days, your dream and the visions in your head as you lay asleep, this is it. ²⁹You, king, your thought has risen as you lay asleep of what will be in the time to come, and the Revealer of Mysteries has made known to you what will be. ³⁰As for me, not through wisdom that is in me more than all living men has the mystery been revealed to me but in order to make known to the king the meaning, that you may know your heart’s thoughts. ³¹You, king, were seeing, and look, a huge statue. This statue was great and its brilliance was abundant. It was standing before you and its appearance was fearsome. ³²That statue, its head was goodly gold, its chest and arms were silver, its loins and its thighs were, bronze. ^{33Its legs were iron and its feet part iron and part clay. 34}You were watching till a stone hewed not by hands struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and shattered them. ³⁵Then altogether the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floor, and 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 meaning we shall say before the king. ³⁷You are king, even king of kings, to whom the God of the heavens has given power and might and honor. ³⁸And wherever human beings, beasts of the field, and fowl of the heavens live, He has given them in your hand and caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. ³⁹And after you shall arise another kingdom, inferior to yours, and a third kingdom, of bronze, that shall rule over all the earth. ⁴⁰And a fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron because iron shatters and splinters all things, and like smashing iron, all these shall it shatter and smash. ⁴¹And as to the feet and the toes you saw, part potter’s clay and part iron, the kingdom shall be split, and it shall have of the strength of iron because you saw iron mixed with clay from the soil. ⁴²And as to the toes, part iron and part clay, some of the kingdom shall be strong and some of it fragile. ⁴³And as to your seeing iron mixed with clay from the soil, they shall be mixed with human seed and shall not hold together just as iron does not mix with clay. ⁴⁴And in the days of these kings the God of the heavens shall establish a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. To another people it shall not be abandoned. It shall shatter and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. ⁴⁵Because you have seen that from a mountain a stone was hewed not by hands and smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, the great God has made known to the king what will be after this, and the dream is true, its meaning certain.” ⁴⁶Then did King Nebuchadnezzar fall on his face, and he bowed down to Daniel, and he said to offer to him grain offering and incense. ⁴⁷The king answered Daniel and said, “In truth, your god is the God of gods and master of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.” ⁴⁸Then did the king make Daniel great, and he gave him many great gifts and caused him to rule over all the province of Babylonia and made him chief governor over all the sages of Babylonia. ⁴⁹And Daniel asked of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the work of the province of Babylonia. And Daniel served in the king’s gate.