1 In the third year of the reign of Y’hoyakim king of Y’hudah, N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel came to Yerushalayim and laid siege to it; ² and Adonai handed Y’hoyakim king of Y’hudah over to him, along with some of the articles from the house of God. He took them to the land of Shin‘ar, to the house of his god and placed the articles in the storehouse of his god.

³ The king ordered Ashp’naz, the eunuch serving as his chief officer, to bring into the palace from the people of Isra’el some of royal or noble descent. ⁴ They were to be boys without physical defect, handsome in appearance, versed in all kinds of wisdom, quick to learn, discerning, and having the capacity to serve in the king’s palace; and he was to teach them the language and literature of the Kasdim. ⁵ The king assigned them a daily portion of his own food and the wine he drank, and they were to be cared for in this way for three years. At the end of this time they were to become the king’s attendants.

⁶ Among these, from the people of Y’hudah, were Dani’el, Hananyah, Misha’el and ‘Azaryah. ⁷ The chief officer gave them other names — to Dani’el he gave the name Belt’shatzar; to Hananyah, Shadrakh; to Misha’el, Meishakh; and to ‘Azaryah, ‘Aved-N’go.

⁸ But Dani’el resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or the wine he drank, so he asked the chief officer to be excused from defiling himself. ⁹ God caused the chief officer to be kind and sympathetic toward Dani’el; ¹⁰ however, the chief officer said to Dani’el, “I’m afraid of my lord the king. After all, he has given you an allowance of food and drink; so if he were to see you boys looking worse than the others your age, you would be putting my own head in danger from the king.”

¹¹ Then Dani’el said to the guard whom the chief officer had put in charge of Dani’el, Hananyah, Misha’el and ‘Azaryah, ¹² “Please! Try an experiment on your servants — for ten days have them give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ Then see how we look, and compare us with how the boys who eat the king’s food look; and deal with your servants according to what you see.” ¹⁴ He agreed to do what they had asked and gave them a ten-day test. ¹⁵ At the end of ten days they looked better and more robust than all the boys who were eating the king’s food. ¹⁶ So the guard took away their food and the wine they were supposed to drink, and gave them vegetables.

¹⁷ To these four boys God had given knowledge and skill in every aspect of learning and wisdom; moreover, Dani’el could understand all kinds of visions and dreams.

¹⁸ When the time the king had set for them to be presented came, the chief officer presented them to N’vukhadnetzar; ¹⁹ and when the king spoke with them, none was found among all of them to compare with Dani’el, Hananyah, Misha’el and ‘Azaryah. So they entered the king’s service; ²⁰ and in all matters requiring wisdom and understanding, whenever the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and exorcists in his entire kingdom.

²¹ So Dani’el remained there until the first year of King Koresh.

2 In the second year of the reign of N’vukhadnetzar, N’vukhadnetzar became so troubled by a series of dreams he had that he couldn’t sleep. ² So the king ordered the magicians, exorcists, sorcerers and astrologers summoned to interpret the king’s dreams to him. They came and stood in his presence. ³ The king said to them, “I had a dream which will keep troubling my spirit until I know what it means.”

⁴ The astrologers spoke to the king in Aramaic: “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” ⁵ The king answered the astrologers, “Here is what I have decided: if you don’t tell me both the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses reduced to rubble. ⁶ But if you do state the dream and its interpretation, I will give you presents, rewards and great honor. Just tell me the dream and its interpretation.” ⁷ A second time they said, “Let his majesty tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” ⁸ The king replied, “I see you’re only trying to gain time, because you see that I’ve decided ⁹ that if you don’t tell me the dream, there is only one sentence passed on all of you. So you’ve conspired to mislead me with lies in the hope that time will change things. Now, just tell me the dream! That will convince me that you will also be able to give me its correct interpretation.” ¹⁰ The astrologers answered the king, “Your majesty, nobody in the world can do this! Never has a king, no matter how great and powerful, asked such a thing of any magician or exorcist or astrologer. ¹¹ The king is asking a difficult thing; nobody but the gods could tell this to your majesty, and they don’t live with mere mortals.” ¹² At this the king flew into a rage and ordered all the sages of Bavel put to death. ¹³ When the decree was published that the sages were to be slain, they sought Dani’el and his companions in order to have them put to death.

¹⁴ Then, choosing his words carefully, Dani’el consulted Aryokh, captain of the royal guard, who had already gone out to kill the sages of Bavel. ¹⁵ He said to Aryokh, “Since you are the king’s official, let me ask: why has the king issued such a harsh decree?” Aryokh explained the matter to Dani’el. ¹⁶ Then Dani’el went in and asked the king to give him time to tell the king the interpretation.

¹⁷ Dani’el went home and made the matter known to Hananyah, Misha’el and ‘Azaryah, his companions; ¹⁸ so that they could ask the God of heaven for mercy concerning this secret, and thus save Dani’el and his companions from dying along with the other sages of Bavel. ¹⁹ Then the secret was revealed to Dani’el in a vision at night, and Dani’el blessed the God of heaven ²⁰ in these words:

²⁴ So Dani’el went to see Aryokh, whom the king had charged with destroying the sages of Bavel, and said to him, “Don’t destroy the sages of Bavel! Bring me before the king, and I will give the king the interpretation.” ²⁵ Quickly Aryokh brought Dani’el before the king and told him, “I have found one of the exiles of Y’hudah who will reveal the interpretation to his majesty.” ²⁶ The king said to Dani’el (who had been renamed Belt’shatzar), “Can you tell me what I dreamt and what it means?” ²⁷ Dani’el answered the king, “No sage, exorcist, magician or astrologer can tell his majesty the secret he has asked about. ²⁸ But there is a God in heaven who unlocks mysteries, and he has revealed to King N’vukhadnetzar what will happen in the acharit-hayamim. Here are your dream and the visions you had in your head when you were in bed.

²⁹ “Your majesty, when you were in bed, you began thinking about what would take place in the future; and he who reveals secrets has revealed to you what will happen. ³⁰ Yet this secret has not been revealed to me because I am wiser than anyone living, but so that the meaning can be made known to your majesty, and then you can understand the thoughts of your own mind.

³¹ “Your majesty had a vision of a statue, very large and extremely bright; it stood in front of you and its appearance was terrifying. ³² The head of the statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its trunk and thighs of bronze, ³³ its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴ As you watched, a stone separated itself without any human hand, struck the statue on its feet made of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken into pieces which became like the chaff on a threshing-floor in summer; the wind blew them away without leaving a trace. But the stone which had struck the statue grew into a huge mountain that filled the whole earth.

³⁶ “That is what you dreamt, and now we will give the king its interpretation. ³⁷ Your majesty, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; ³⁸ so that wherever people, wild animals or birds in the air live, he has handed them over to you and enabled you to rule them all — you are the head of gold. ³⁹ But after you another kingdom will rise, inferior to you; then a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule the whole world. ⁴⁰ The fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron. Iron can break anything into pieces, pulverize it and crush it. So just as iron can crush anything, this kingdom will break the other kingdoms into pieces and crush them. ⁴¹ Finally, you saw the feet and toes made partly of pottery clay and partly of iron; this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the firmness of iron, since you saw the iron mixed with clay from the ground. ⁴² Just as the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. ⁴³ You saw the iron mixed with clay; that means that they will cement their alliances by intermarriages; but they won’t stick together any more than iron blends with clay.

⁴⁴ “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not pass into the hands of another people. It will break to pieces and consume all those kingdoms; but it, itself, will stand forever — ⁴⁵ like the stone you saw, which, without human hands, separated itself from the mountain and broke to pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. The great God has revealed to the king what will come about in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is reliable.”

⁴⁶ Then King N’vukhadnetzar fell on his face and worshipped Dani’el; he ordered that a grain offering and incense be offered to him. ⁴⁷ To Dani’el the king said, “Your God is indeed the God of gods, the Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, since you have been able to reveal this secret.” ⁴⁸ The king promoted Dani’el to a high rank, gave him many rich gifts and made him governor of the entire province of Bavel and head of all the sages of Bavel. ⁴⁹ At Dani’el’s request, the king put Shadrakh, Meishakh and ‘Aved-N’go in charge of the affairs of the province of Bavel, while Dani’el remained in attendance on the king.

16 I heard a loud voice from the sanctuary say to the seven angels, “Go, and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of God’s fury!”

² So the first one went and poured his bowl onto the earth, and disgusting and painful sores appeared on all the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped its image.

³ The second one poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.

⁴ The third one poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned to blood. ⁵ Then I heard the angel of the waters say,

⁷ Then I heard the altar say,

⁸ The fourth one poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was permitted to burn people with fire. ⁹ People were burned by the intense heat; yet they cursed the name of God, who had the authority over these plagues, instead of turning from their sins to give him glory.

¹⁰ The fifth one poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom grew dark. People gnawed on their tongues from the pain, ¹¹ yet they cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and did not turn from their sinful deeds.

¹² The sixth one poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water dried up, in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east. ¹³ And I saw three unclean spirits that looked like frogs; they came from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ They are miracle-working demonic spirits which go out to the kings of the whole inhabited world to assemble them for the War of the Great Day of Adonai-Tzva’ot. ¹⁵ (“Look! I am coming like a thief! How blessed are those who stay alert and keep their clothes clean, so that they won’t be walking naked and be publicly put to shame!”) ¹⁶ And they gathered the kings to the place which in Hebrew is called Har Megiddo.

¹⁷ The seventh one poured out his bowl on the air, and a loud voice came out of the Temple from the throne, saying, “It is done!” ¹⁸ There were flashes of lightning, voices and peals of thunder; and there was a massive earthquake, such as has never occurred since mankind has been on earth, so violent was the earthquake. ¹⁹ The great city was split into three parts, the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Bavel the Great and made her drink the wine from the cup of his raging fury. ²⁰ Every island fled, and no mountains were to be found. ²¹ And huge seventy-pound hailstones fell on people from the sky. But the people cursed God for the plague of hail, that it was such a terrible plague.