但以理书 2
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
尼布甲尼撒的梦
2 尼布甲尼撒在执政第二年做了梦，心里烦乱，无法入睡， 2 便派人召来术士、巫师、行法术的和占星家[a]，为他解梦。他们都来到王面前。 3 王对他们说：“我做了一个梦，心里烦乱，想知道梦的意思。” 4 占星家用亚兰话对王说：“愿王万岁！请将梦告诉仆人，仆人好解释梦的意思。” 5 王对占星家说：“我的旨意已定，你们若不能将梦和梦的意思告诉我，必被碎尸万段，你们的家必沦为废墟。 6 你们若能将梦和梦的意思告诉我，我必给你们礼物、赏赐和极大的尊荣。所以你们要将梦和梦的意思告诉我。” 7 他们再次对王说：“请王将梦告诉仆人，仆人好解释梦的意思。” 8 王说：“我敢肯定，你们是在拖延时间，因为你们知道我的旨意已定， 9 你们若不将梦告诉我，我必惩治你们。你们串通起来在我面前胡言乱语，期待情况会改变。现在将梦告诉我，我就相信你们能解梦。” 10 占星家说：“王所要求的，世上无人能做到，因为再伟大、再有权势的君王也没问过术士、巫师或占星家这样的事。 11 王问的事太难，除了不在人间居住的神明外，无人能为王解答。” 12 王大怒，下令处死巴比伦所有的智者。 13 于是，处死智者的谕旨发出，但以理和他的同伴都在被杀之列。
14 王的护卫长亚略奉命要处死巴比伦的智者，但以理机智、谨慎地应对。 15 他问王的护卫长亚略：“王的命令为何这样紧急？”亚略就把情况告诉他。 16 但以理便进宫求王宽限，以便为王解梦。 17 然后，他回到居所将这事告诉同伴哈拿尼雅、米沙利和亚撒利雅， 18 要同伴祈求天上的上帝施怜悯，显明这奥秘，以免他们和其他巴比伦的智者一起被杀。 19 这奥秘在夜间的异象中向但以理显明，他便颂赞天上的上帝， 20 说：
“上帝的名永永远远当受称颂，
因为智慧和能力都属于祂。
21 祂改变时令和季节，废王立王，
赐智慧给智者，赐知识给哲士。
22 祂显明深奥隐秘之事，
洞悉暗中的隐情，
有光与祂同住。
23 我祖先的上帝啊，我感谢你，赞美你，
因你赐我智慧和能力，
应允我们的祈求，
使我们明白王的梦。”
但以理解梦
24 于是，但以理去见王指派处死巴比伦智者的亚略，对他说：“不要处死巴比伦的智者，请带我去见王，我要为王解梦。” 25 亚略急忙带但以理去见王，对王说：“我在被掳的犹大人中找到一个能为王解梦的。” 26 王就问又名伯提沙撒的但以理：“你能将我做的梦和梦的意思告诉我吗？” 27 但以理回答说：“没有智者、术士、巫师或占星家可以解答王所问的奥秘， 28-30 但天上的上帝能揭开奥秘，祂已把将来要发生的事告诉了王。王啊，你在床上梦见了将来的事，揭开奥秘的上帝已把将来的事指示给你。上帝将王做的梦启示给我，并非因为我的智慧胜过其他人，而是要让王知道梦的意思和王的心事。以下是王在床上做的梦和脑中出现的异象。
31 “王啊，你梦见一个高大宏伟、极其明亮的塑像站在你面前，相貌可怕， 32 有纯金的头、银的胸和臂、铜的肚腹和大腿、 33 铁的小腿和半铁半泥的脚。 34 在你观看的时候，有一块非人手凿出的石头打在塑像半铁半泥的脚上，砸碎了脚。 35 铁、泥、铜、银、金随即粉碎，犹如夏天麦场上的糠秕，被风吹得无影无踪。但打碎这像的石头变成一座大山，充满整个大地。
36 “这就是梦的内容。现在我们要为王解梦。 37 王啊，你是万王之王，天上的上帝已将国度、权柄、能力和尊荣赐给你， 38 也将居住在各地的世人、走兽和飞禽都交在你手中，让你管理。你就是那金头。 39 在你之后，必有另一国兴起，不及你的国强大。之后是将要统治天下的第三个国，是铜的。 40 接着是坚如铁的第四国，能击垮、打碎列国，正如铁能击垮、打碎一切。 41 你看见半铁半陶泥的脚和脚趾，表示那将是一个分裂的国。正如你看见铁和泥混杂在一起，它必有铁一般的力量。 42 半铁半泥的脚趾表示那国必半强半弱。 43 你看见铁和泥混杂在一起，这表示那国的民族彼此混杂通婚，却不能团结，正如铁和泥无法混合。 44 在以上列王统治的时候，天上的上帝必设立一国——永不灭亡、外族无法夺其政权。这国将击垮、消灭列国，并且永远长存。 45 你看见那块非人手从山中凿出的石头打碎铁、铜、泥、银和金。伟大的上帝已把将来的事告诉了王。这梦是真实的，解释是可靠的。”
46 尼布甲尼撒王俯伏在地，向但以理下拜，并下令给他献供物和香。 47 王对但以理说：“你们的上帝真是万神之神、万王之主、奥秘的启示者，因为你能揭开这个奥秘。” 48 王赐但以理高官及许多贵重的礼物，派他治理巴比伦全省，管理巴比伦所有的智者。 49 王又应允但以理的请求，派沙得拉、米煞和亚伯尼歌负责巴比伦省的事务。但以理仍在朝中供职。
Daniel 2
Common English Bible
An impossible challenge
2 In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule, he had many dreams. The dreams made him anxious, but he kept sleeping. 2 The king summoned the dream interpreters, enchanters, diviners, and Chaldeans to explain his dreams to him. They came and stood before the king.
3 Then the king said to them: “I had a dream, and I’m anxious to know its meaning.”
4 The Chaldeans answered the king in Aramaic:[a] “Long live the king! Tell your servants the dream, and we will explain its meaning.”
5 The king answered the Chaldeans: “My decision is final: If you can’t tell me the dream and its meaning, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be turned into trash dumps. 6 But if you do explain the dream and its meaning, you’ll receive generous gifts and glorious honor from me. So explain to me the dream as well as its meaning.”
7 They answered him again: “The king must tell his servants the dream. We will then explain the meaning.”
8 The king replied: “Now I definitely know you are stalling for time, because you see that my decision is final 9 and that if you can’t tell me the dream, your fate is certain. You’ve conspired to make false and lying speeches before me until the situation changes. Tell me the dream now! Then I’ll know you can explain its meaning to me.”
10 The Chaldeans answered the king: “No one on earth can do what the king is asking! No king or ruler, no matter how great, has ever asked such a thing of any dream interpreter, enchanter, or Chaldean. 11 What the king is asking is impossible! No one could declare the dream to the king but the gods, who don’t live among mere humans.”
12 At this, the king exploded in a furious rage and ordered that all Babylon’s sages be wiped out. 13 So the command went out: The sages were to be killed. Daniel and his friends too were hunted down; they were to be killed as well.
God reveals the mystery
14 Then Daniel, with wisdom and sound judgment, responded to Arioch the king’s chief executioner, who had gone out to kill Babylon’s sages. 15 He said to Arioch the king’s royal officer, “Why is the king’s command so unreasonable?” After Arioch explained the situation to Daniel, 16 Daniel went and asked the king to give him some time so he could explain the dream’s meaning to him. 17 Then Daniel went to his house and explained the situation to his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah 18 so that they would ask the God of heaven for help about this mystery, in hopes that Daniel and his friends wouldn’t die with the rest of Babylon’s sages. 19 Then, in a vision by night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel! Daniel praised the God of heaven:
20 God’s name be praised
from age to eternal age!
Wisdom and might are his!
21 God is the one who changes times and eras,
who dethrones one king, only to establish another,
who grants wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those with insight.
22 God is the one who uncovers what lies deeply hidden;
he knows what hides in darkness;
light lives with him!
23 I acknowledge and praise you, my fathers’ God!
You’ve given me wisdom and might,
and now you’ve made known to me what we asked of you:
you’ve made known to us the king’s demand.
Daniel recounts the dream
24 So Daniel went to Arioch, the man the king had appointed to wipe out Babylon’s sages. Daniel said to him, “Don’t wipe out the sages of Babylon! Bring me before the king, and I will explain the dream’s meaning to him.” 25 Wasting no time, Arioch brought Daniel before the king, telling him, “I have found someone from the Judean exiles who will tell the dream’s meaning to the king.”
26 In reply the king said to Daniel (whose name was Belteshazzar), “Can you really tell me the dream that I saw, as well as its meaning?”
27 Daniel answered the king, “Sages, enchanters, dream interpreters, and diviners can’t explain to the king the mystery he seeks. 28 But there is a God in heaven, a revealer of mysteries, who has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the days to come! Now this was your dream—this was the vision in your head as you lay in your bed:
29 “As you lay in bed, Your Majesty, your thoughts turned to what will happen in the future. The revealer of mysteries has revealed to you what will happen. 30 Now this mystery was revealed to me, not because I have more wisdom than any other living person but so that the dream’s meaning might be made known to the king, and so that you might know the thoughts of your own mind.
31 “Your Majesty, you were looking, and there, rising before you, was a single, massive statue. This statue was huge, shining with dazzling light, and was awesome to see. 32 The statue’s head was made of pure gold; its chest and arms were made from silver; its abdomen and hips were made of bronze. 33 Its legs were of iron, and its feet were a mixture of iron and clay. 34 You observed this until a stone was cut, but not by hands; and it smashed the statue’s feet of iron and clay and shattered them. 35 Then all the parts shattered simultaneously—iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. They became like chaff, left on summer threshing floors. The wind lifted them away until no trace of them remained. But the stone that smashed the statue became a mighty mountain, and it filled the entire earth.
The dream’s meaning: four future rulers
36 “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its meaning: 37 You, Your Majesty, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given kingship, power, might, and glory to you! 38 God has delivered into your care human beings, wild creatures, and birds in the sky—wherever they live—and has made you ruler of all of them. You are the gold head. 39 But in your place, another kingdom will arise, one inferior to yours, and then a third, bronze kingdom will rule over all the earth. 40 Then will come a fourth kingdom, mighty like iron. Just as iron shatters and crushes everything; so like an iron that smashes, it will shatter and crush all these others. 41 As for the feet and toes that you saw, which were a mixture of potter’s clay and iron, that signifies a divided kingdom; but it will possess some of the unyielding strength of iron. Even so, you saw the iron mixed with earthy clay 42 so that the toes were made from a mixture of iron and clay. Part of the kingdom will be mighty, but part of it will be fragile. 43 Just as you saw the iron mixed with earthy clay, they will join together by intermarrying, but they will not bond to each other, just as iron does not fuse with clay.
44 “But in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will raise up an everlasting kingdom that will be indestructible. Its rule will never pass to another people. It will shatter other kingdoms. It will put an end to all of them. It will stand firm forever, 45 just like you saw when the stone, which was cut from the mountain, but not by hands, shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. A great God has revealed to the king what will happen in the future. The dream is certain. Its meaning can be trusted.”
Nebuchadnezzar honors Daniel
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar bowed low and honored Daniel. The king ordered that grain and incense offerings be made to Daniel. 47 The king declared to Daniel, “No doubt about it: your God is God of gods, Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries because you were able to reveal this mystery!” 48 Then the king exalted Daniel and lavished gifts on him, making him ruler over all the province of Babylon and chief minister over all Babylon’s sages. 49 At Daniel’s urging, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to administer the province of Babylon, but Daniel himself remained at the royal court.
Footnotes
- Daniel 2:4 The book switches into Aramaic at this point, returning to Hebrew in 8:1.
Chinese Contemporary Bible Copyright © 1979, 2005, 2007, 2011 by Biblica® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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