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¹ And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar was dreaming dreams, and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep was finished on him.² And the king said to call to the magicians, and to the conjurers, and to the sorcerers and to the Chaldeans, to declare to the king his dreams. And they came and stood before the king.³ And the king said to them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.⁴ And 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 answered and said to the Chaldeans, The word is certainly gone from me. If you will not make known the dream and its meaning to me, you will be made into mere members, and your houses shall be made an outhouse.⁶ But if you make known the dream, you shall receive gifts and a present and great honor from before me. Therefore, reveal the dream and its meaning to me.⁷ They again replied and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will reveal its meaning.⁸ The king answered and said, For I know that you buy time, that on account of all, you see the thing is certainly gone from me.⁹ But if you will not make the dream known to me, there is one law for you. For you have agreed upon lying and deceiving words to speak before me until the time has changed. Therefore, tell methe dream, then I shall know that you canreveal the meaning to me.¹⁰ The Chaldeans replied before the king and said, There is not a man on the earth who can reveal the king's matter, because not any king, lord, or ruler has asked such a thing from any magician, or conjurer, or Chaldean.¹¹ And the thing that the king asks is rare. And there is no other who may reveal it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.¹² Then the king was enraged and angered. And he commanded all the wise men of Babylon to be destroyed.¹³ And the law went out that the wise men should be killed. And they looked for Daniel and his companions, to be killed.

¹⁴ Then Daniel answered with counsel and insight to Arioch the chief of the king's bodyguard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.¹⁵ He answered and said to Arioch, the king's officer, Why is the decree so hasty from before the king? And Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.¹⁶ And Daniel went in and asked of the king that he would give him time, and he would show the king the meaning.¹⁷ Then Daniel went to his house and declared the thing to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions,¹⁸ that they might pray for the mercies of God in Heaven about this secret, 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 answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His.²¹ And He changes the times and the seasons; He causes kings to pass away, and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who know understanding.²² He reveals the deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells in Him.²³ I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might, and has made me know what we ask of You. For You have revealed to us the king's matter.

²⁴ Then Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had chosen to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said this to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will show the meaning to the king.²⁵ Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel in before the king and spoke this to him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make the meaning known to the king.²⁶ The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to reveal to me the dream which I have seen, and its meaning?²⁷ Daniel replied before the king and said, The secret which the king has demanded cannot be shown to the king by the wise men, the conjurers, the magicians, or the star-gazing ones.²⁸ But there is a God in Heaven who reveals secrets, and makes known to King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head on your bed, are these:²⁹ As for you, O king, your thoughts came on your bed, what should happen after this. And He who reveals secrets makes known to you what shall occur.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 made known to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your heart.

³¹ You, O king, were seeing. And, behold, a certain great image! That great image stood before you with a brilliant brightness, and its form was dreadful.³² The head of this image was of fine gold, its breast and its arms were of silver, its belly and its thighs were of bronze,³³ its legs were of iron, its feet were partly of iron and partly of clay.³⁴ You continued until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were together broken to pieces, and they became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that no place was found for them. And thestone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.³⁶ This is the dream, and we will tell the meaning of it before the king.³⁷ You O king are the king of kings. For the God of Heaven has given you the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the honor.³⁸ And wherever the sons of men, the animals of the field, and the birds of the sky dwell, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.³⁹ And in your place shall arise another kingdom lower than yours, and another third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule in all the earth.⁴⁰ And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron. Inasmuch as iron crushes and smashes all things, and as the iron that shatters all these, it will crush and shatter.⁴¹ And as to that you saw, the feet and the toes were partly of potters' clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. But there shall be in it the strength of iron, because you saw the iron mixed with clay of the potter.⁴² And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.⁴³ And as you saw the iron mixed with the clay of the clay, they shall be mixed with the seed of men. But they shall not adhere to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay.⁴⁴ And in the days of these kings, the God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and destroy all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.⁴⁵ Because you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold in pieces. The great God has made known to the king what shall occur after this. And the dream

⁴⁶ Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel. And he commanded an offering, even to offer incense to him.⁴⁷ The king answered Daniel and said, Your God truly 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 many great gifts to him. And he made him ruler over all the province of Babylon, and chief of the prefects over all the wise men of Babylon.⁴⁹ And Daniel asked of 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.