1 ^1-2 Three years after King Jehoiakim began to rule in Judah, Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem with his armies, and the Lord gave him victory over Jehoiakim. When he returned to Babylon, he took along some of the sacred cups from the Temple of God and placed them in the treasury of his god in the land of Shinar.

^3-4 Then he ordered Ashpenaz, who was in charge of his palace personnel,^[a] to select some of the Jewish youths brought back as captives—young men of the royal family and nobility of Judah—and to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. “Pick strong, healthy, good-looking lads,” he said; “those who have read widely in many fields, are well informed, alert and sensible, and have enough poise to look good around the palace.”

⁵ The king assigned them the best of food and wine from his own kitchen during their three-year training period, planning to make them his counselors when they graduated.

⁶ Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. ⁷ However, their superintendent gave them Babylonian names, as follows:

⁸ But Daniel made up his mind not to eat^[b] the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the superintendent for permission to eat other things instead. ⁹ Now as it happened, God had given the superintendent a special appreciation for Daniel and sympathy for his predicament. ¹⁰ But he was alarmed by Daniel’s suggestion.

“I’m afraid you will become pale and thin compared with the other youths your age,” he said, “and then the king will behead me for neglecting my responsibilities.”

¹¹ Daniel talked it over with the steward who was appointed by the superintendent to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹² and suggested a ten-day diet of only vegetables and water; ¹³ then, at the end of this trial period the steward could see how they looked in comparison with the other fellows who ate the king’s rich food and decide whether or not to let them continue their diet.

¹⁴ The steward finally agreed to the test. ¹⁵ Well, at the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the youths who had been eating the food supplied by the king! ¹⁶ So after that the steward fed them only vegetables and water, without the rich foods and wines!

¹⁷ God gave these four youths great ability to learn, and they soon mastered all the literature and science of the time; and God gave to Daniel special ability in understanding the meanings of dreams and visions.

^18-19 When the three-year training period was completed, the superintendent brought all the young men to the king for oral exams, as he had been ordered to do. King Nebuchadnezzar had long talks with each of them, and none of them impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they were put on his regular staff of advisors. ²⁰ And in all matters requiring information and balanced judgment, the king found these young men’s advice ten times better than that of all the skilled magicians and wise astrologers in his realm.

²¹ Daniel held this appointment as the king’s counselor until the first year of the reign of King Cyrus.

2 ^1-3 One night in the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had a terrifying nightmare and awoke trembling with fear. And to make matters worse, he couldn’t remember his dream! He immediately called in all his magicians, incantationists, sorcerers, and astrologers, and demanded that they tell him what his dream had been.

“I’ve had a terrible nightmare,” he said as they stood before him, “and I can’t remember what it was. Tell me, for I fear some tragedy awaits me.”

⁴ Then the astrologers (speaking in Aramaic) said to the king, “Sir, tell us the dream and then we can tell you what it means.”

⁵ But the king replied, “I tell you the dream is gone—I can’t remember it. And if you won’t tell me what it was and what it means, I’ll have you torn limb from limb and your houses made into heaps of rubble! ⁶ But I will give you many wonderful gifts and honors if you tell me what the dream was and what it means. So, begin!”

⁷ They said again, “How can we tell you what the dream means unless you tell us what it was?”

^8-9 The king retorted, “I can see your trick! You’re trying to stall for time until the calamity befalls me that the dream foretells. But if you don’t tell me the dream, you certainly can’t expect me to believe your interpretation!”

¹⁰ The astrologers replied to the king, “There isn’t a man alive who can tell others what they have dreamed! And there isn’t a king in all the world who would ask such a thing! ¹¹ This is an impossible thing the king requires. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they are not here to help.”

¹² Upon hearing this, the king was furious and sent out orders to execute all the wise men of Babylon. ¹³ And Daniel and his companions were rounded up with the others to be killed.

¹⁴ But when Arioch, the chief executioner, came to kill them, Daniel handled the situation with great wisdom by asking, ¹⁵ “Why is the king so angry? What is the matter?”

Then Arioch told him all that had happened.

¹⁶ So Daniel went in to see the king. “Give me a little time,” he said, “and I will tell you the dream and what it means.”

¹⁷ Then he went home and told Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. ¹⁸ They asked the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not die with the others. ¹⁹ And that night in a vision God told Daniel what the king had dreamed.

Then Daniel praised the God of heaven, ²⁰ saying, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for he alone has all wisdom and all power. ²¹ World events are under his control. He removes kings and sets others on their thrones. He gives wise men their wisdom and scholars their intelligence. ²² He reveals profound mysteries beyond man’s understanding. He knows all hidden things, for he is light, and darkness is no obstacle to him. ²³ I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers, for you have given me wisdom and glowing health, and now even this vision of the king’s dream and the understanding of what it means.”

²⁴ Then Daniel went in to see Arioch, who had been ordered to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said, “Don’t kill them. Take me to the king, and I will tell him what he wants to know.”

²⁵ Then Arioch hurried Daniel in to the king and said, “I’ve found one of the Jewish captives who will tell you your dream!”

²⁶ The king said to Daniel, “Is this true? Can you tell me what my dream was and what it means?”

²⁷ Daniel replied, “No wise man, astrologer, magician, or wizard can tell the king such things, ²⁸ but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has told you in your dream what will happen in the future. This was your dream:

²⁹ “You dreamed of coming events. He who reveals secrets was speaking to you. ³⁰ (But remember, it’s not because I am wiser than any living person that I know this secret of your dream, for God showed it to me for your benefit.)

³¹ “O king, you saw a huge and powerful statue of a man, shining brilliantly, frightening and terrible. ³² The head of the statue was made of purest gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet part iron and part clay. ³⁴ But as you watched, a Rock was cut from the mountainside^[c] by supernatural means. It came hurtling toward the statue and crushed the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. ³⁵ Then the whole statue collapsed into a heap of iron, clay, brass, silver, and gold; its pieces were crushed as small as chaff, and the wind blew them all away. But the Rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.

³⁶ “That was the dream; now for its meaning:

³⁷ “Your Majesty, you are a king over many kings, for the God of heaven has given you your kingdom, power, strength, and glory. ³⁸ You rule the farthest provinces, and even animals and birds are under your control, as God decreed. You are that head of gold.

³⁹ “But after your kingdom has come to an end, another world power^[d] will arise to take your place. This empire will be inferior to yours. And after that kingdom has fallen, yet a third great power—represented by the bronze belly of the statue—will rise to rule the world. ⁴⁰ Following it, the fourth kingdom^[e] will be strong as iron—smashing, bruising, and conquering. ^41-42 The feet and toes you saw—part iron and part clay—show that later on, this kingdom will be divided. Some parts of it will be as strong as iron, and some as weak as clay. ⁴³ This mixture of iron with clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage of their rulers; but this will not succeed, for iron and clay don’t mix.

⁴⁴ “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it shall stand forever, indestructible. ⁴⁵ That is the meaning of the Rock cut from the mountain without human hands—the Rock that crushed to powder all the iron and brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold.

“Thus the great God has shown what will happen in the future, and this interpretation of your dream is as sure and certain as my description of it.”

⁴⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar fell to the ground before Daniel and worshiped him and commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burn sweet incense before him.

⁴⁷ “Truly, O Daniel,” the king said, “your God is the God of gods, Ruler of kings, the Revealer of mysteries, because he has told you this secret.”

⁴⁸ Then the king made Daniel very great; he gave him many valuable gifts and appointed him to be ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men.

⁴⁹ Then, at Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as Daniel’s assistants, to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon; Daniel served as chief magistrate in the king’s court.

3 King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet high and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon; ² then he sent messages to all the princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, counselors, sheriffs, and rulers of all the provinces of his empire, to come to the dedication of his statue. ³ When they had all arrived and were standing before the monument, ⁴ a herald shouted out, “O people of all nations and languages, this is the king’s command:

⁵ “When the band^[f] strikes up, you are to fall flat on the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue; ⁶ anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a flaming furnace.”

⁷ So when the band began to play, everyone—whatever his nation, language, or religion^[g]—fell to the ground and worshiped the statue.

⁸ But some officials went to the king and accused some of the Jews of refusing to worship!

⁹ “Your Majesty,” they said to him, ¹⁰ “you made a law that everyone must fall down and worship the gold statue when the band begins to play, ¹¹ and that anyone who refuses will be thrown into a flaming furnace. ¹² But there are some Jews out there—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whom you have put in charge of Babylonian affairs—who have defied you, refusing to serve your gods or to worship the gold statue you set up.”

¹³ Then Nebuchadnezzar, in a terrible rage, ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be brought in before him.

¹⁴ “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,” he demanded, “that you are refusing to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue I set up? ¹⁵ I’ll give you one more chance. When the music plays, if you fall down and worship the statue, all will be well. But if you refuse, you will be thrown into a flaming furnace within the hour. And what god can deliver you out of my hands then?”

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not worried about what will happen to us. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the flaming furnace, our God is able to deliver us; and he will deliver us out of your hand, Your Majesty. ¹⁸ But if he doesn’t, please understand, sir, that even then we will never under any circumstance serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have erected.”

¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and his face became dark with anger at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He commanded that the furnace be heated up seven times hotter than usual, ²⁰ and called for some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and throw them into the fire. ²¹ So they bound them tight with ropes and threw them into the furnace, fully clothed. ²² And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames leaped out and killed the soldiers as they threw them in! ²³ So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell down bound into the roaring flames.

²⁴ But suddenly, as he was watching, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisors, “Didn’t we throw three men into the furnace?”

“Yes,” they said, “we did indeed, Your Majesty.”

²⁵ “Well, look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire, and they aren’t even hurt by the flames! And the fourth looks like a god!”^[h]

²⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the open door of the flaming furnace and yelled: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God! Come out! Come here!” So they stepped out of the fire.

²⁷ Then the princes, governors, captains, and counselors crowded around them and saw that the fire hadn’t touched them—not a hair of their heads was singed; their coats were unscorched, and they didn’t even smell of smoke!

²⁸ Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, for he sent his angel to deliver his trusting servants when they defied the king’s commandment and were willing to die rather than serve or worship any god except their own. ²⁹ Therefore, I make this decree, that any person of any nation, language, or religion^[i] who speaks a word against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and his house knocked into a heap of rubble. For no other God can do what this one does.”

³⁰ Then the king gave promotions to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so that they prospered greatly there in the province of Babylon.

4 This is the proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar the king, which he sent to people of every language in every nation of the world:

Greetings:

² I want you all to know about the strange thing that the Most High God did to me. ³ It was incredible—a mighty miracle! And now I know for sure that his kingdom is everlasting; he reigns forever and ever.

⁴ I, Nebuchadnezzar, was living in peace and prosperity, ⁵ when one night I had a dream that greatly frightened me. ⁶ I called in all the wise men of Babylon to tell me the meaning of my dream, ⁷ but when they came—the magicians, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and wizards—and I told them the dream, they couldn’t interpret it. ⁸ At last Daniel came in—the man I named Belteshazzar after my god—the man in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and I told him the dream.

⁹ “O Belteshazzar, master magician,” I said, “I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery is too great for you to solve. Tell me what my dream means:

^10-11 “I saw a very tall tree out in a field, growing higher and higher into the sky until it could be seen by everyone in all the world. ¹² Its leaves were fresh and green, and its branches were weighted down with fruit, enough for everyone to eat. Wild animals rested beneath its shade and birds sheltered in its branches, and all the world was fed from it. ¹³ Then as I lay there dreaming, I saw one of God’s angels^[j] coming down from heaven.

¹⁴ “He shouted, ‘Cut down the tree; lop off its branches; shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit. Get the animals out from under it and the birds from its branches, ¹⁵ but leave its stump and roots in the ground, banded with a chain of iron and brass, surrounded by the tender grass. Let the dew of heaven drench him and let him eat grass with the wild animals! ¹⁶ For seven years let him have the mind of an animal instead of a man. ¹⁷ For this has been decreed by the Watchers, demanded by the Holy Ones. The purpose of this decree is that all the world may understand that the Most High dominates the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he wants to, even the lowliest of men!’

¹⁸ “O Belteshazzar, that was my dream; now tell me what it means. For no one else can help me; all the wisest men of my kingdom have failed me. But you can tell me, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

¹⁹ Then Daniel^[k] sat there stunned and silent for an hour, aghast at the meaning of the dream. Finally the king said to him: “Belteshazzar, don’t be afraid to tell me what it means.”

Daniel replied: “Oh, that the events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to your enemies, my lord, and not to you! ²⁰ For the tree you saw growing so tall, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see, ²¹ with its fresh green leaves, loaded with fruit for all to eat, the wild animals living in its shade, with its branches full of birds— ²² that tree, Your Majesty, is you. For you have grown strong and great; your greatness reaches up to heaven, and your rule to the ends of the earth.

²³ “Then you saw God’s angel^[l] coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump and the roots in the earth surrounded by tender grass, banded with a chain of iron and brass. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. For seven years let him eat grass with the animals of the field.’

²⁴ “Your Majesty, the Most High God has decreed—and it will surely happen— ²⁵ that your people will chase you from your palace, and you will live in the fields like an animal, eating grass like a cow, your back wet with dew from heaven. For seven years this will be your life, until you learn that the Most High God dominates the kingdoms of men and gives power to anyone he chooses. ²⁶ But the stump and the roots were left in the ground! This means that you will get your kingdom back again when you have learned that heaven rules.

²⁷ “O King Nebuchadnezzar, listen to me—stop sinning; do what you know is right; be merciful to the poor. Perhaps even yet God will spare you.”

²⁸ But all these things happened to Nebuchadnezzar. ²⁹ Twelve months after this dream, he was strolling on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, ³⁰ and saying, “I, by my own mighty power, have built this beautiful city as my royal residence and as the capital of my empire.”

³¹ While he was still speaking these words, a voice called down from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you: You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. ³² You will be forced out of the palace to live with the animals in the fields and to eat grass like the cows for seven years, until you finally realize that God parcels out the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he chooses.”

³³ That very same hour this prophecy was fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar was chased from his palace and ate grass like the cows, and his body was wet with dew; his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.

³⁴ “At the end of seven years^[m] I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High God and honored him who lives forever, whose rule is everlasting, his kingdom evermore. ³⁵ All the people of the earth are nothing when compared to him; he does whatever he thinks best among the angels of heaven, as well as here on earth. No one can stop him or challenge him, saying, ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’ ³⁶ When my mind returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My counselors and officers came back to me, and I was reestablished as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.

³⁷ “Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of Heaven, the Judge of all, whose every act is right and good; for he is able to take those who walk proudly and push them into the dust!”

5 Belshazzar the king invited a thousand of his officers to a great feast where the wine flowed freely. ^2-4 While Belshazzar was drinking, he was reminded of the gold and silver cups taken long before from the Temple in Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and brought to Babylon. Belshazzar ordered that these sacred cups be brought in to the feast, and when they arrived, he and his princes, wives, and concubines drank toasts from them to their idols made of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and stone.

⁵ Suddenly, as they were drinking from these cups, they saw the fingers of a man’s hand writing on the plaster of the wall opposite the lampstand. The king himself saw the fingers as they wrote. ⁶ His face blanched with fear, and such terror gripped him that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way beneath him.

⁷ “Bring the magicians and astrologers!” he screamed. “Bring the Chaldeans! Whoever reads that writing on the wall and tells me what it means will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor, with a gold chain around his neck, and he will become the third ruler in the kingdom!”^[n]

⁸ But when they came, none of them could understand the writing or tell him what it meant.

⁹ The king grew more and more hysterical; his face reflected the terror he felt, and his officers too were shaken. ¹⁰ But when the queen mother heard what was happening, she rushed to the banquet hall and said to Belshazzar, “Calm yourself, Your Majesty, don’t be so pale and frightened over this. ¹¹ For there is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father this man was found to be as full of wisdom and understanding as though he were himself a god. And in the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar,^[o] he was made chief of all the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers of Babylon. ¹² Call for this man, Daniel—or Belteshazzar, as the king called him—for his mind is filled with divine knowledge and understanding. He can interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve knotty problems. He will tell you what the writing means.”

¹³ So Daniel was rushed in to see the king. The king asked him, “Are you the Daniel brought from Israel as a captive by King Nebuchadnezzar? ¹⁴ I have heard that you have the spirit of the gods within you and that you are filled with enlightenment and wisdom. ¹⁵ My wise men and astrologers have tried to read that writing on the wall and tell me what it means, but they can’t. ¹⁶ I am told you can solve all kinds of mysteries. If you can tell me the meaning of those words, I will clothe you in purple robes, with a gold chain around your neck, and make you the third ruler in the kingdom.”

¹⁷ Daniel answered, “Keep your gifts or give them to someone else, but I will tell you what the writing means. ¹⁸ Your Majesty, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, who long ago preceded you, a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor. ¹⁹ He gave him such majesty that all the nations of the world trembled before him in fear. He killed any who offended him and spared any he liked. At his whim they rose or fell. ²⁰ But when his heart and mind were hardened in pride, God removed him from his royal throne and took away his glory. ²¹ He was chased out of his palace into the fields. His thoughts and feelings became those of an animal, and he lived among the wild donkeys; he ate grass like the cows, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until at last he knew that the Most High overrules the kingdoms of men and appoints anyone he desires to reign over them.

²² “And you, his successor, O Belshazzar—you knew all this, yet you have not been humble. ²³ For you have defied the Lord of Heaven and brought here these cups from his Temple; and you and your officers and wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, brass, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not praised the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny! ^24-25 And so God sent those fingers to write this message: ‘Mene,’ ‘Mene,’ ‘Tekel,’ ‘Parsin.’

²⁶ “This is what it means:

“Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign, and they are ended.

²⁷ “Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed in God’s balances and have failed the test.

²⁸ “Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom will be divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

²⁹ Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was robed in purple, a gold chain was hung around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰ That very night Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed, ³¹ and Darius the Mede^[p] entered the city and began reigning at the age of sixty-two.

6 Darius divided the kingdom into 120 provinces, each under a governor. ² The governors were accountable to three presidents (Daniel was one of them) so the king could administer the kingdom efficiently.

³ Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other presidents and governors, for he had great ability, and the king began to think of placing him over the entire empire as his administrative officer.

⁴ This made the other presidents and governors very jealous, and they began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling his affairs so that they could complain to the king about him. But they couldn’t find anything to criticize! He was faithful and honest and made no mistakes. ⁵ So they concluded, “Our only chance is his religion!”

⁶ They decided to go to the king and say, “King Darius, live forever! ⁷ We presidents, governors, counselors, and deputies have unanimously decided that you should make a law, irrevocable under any circumstance, that for the next thirty days anyone who asks a favor of God or man—except from you, Your Majesty—shall be thrown to the lions. ⁸ Your Majesty, we request your signature on this law; sign it so that it cannot be canceled or changed; it will be a ‘law of the Medes and Persians’ that cannot be revoked.”

⁹ So King Darius signed the law.

¹⁰ But though Daniel knew about it, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs bedroom, with its windows open toward Jerusalem, and prayed three times a day, just as he always had, giving thanks to his God.

¹¹ Then the men thronged to Daniel’s house and found him praying there, asking favors of his God. ¹² They rushed back to the king and reminded him about his law. “Haven’t you signed a decree,” they demanded, “that permits no petitions to any God or man—except you—for thirty days? And anyone disobeying will be thrown to the lions?”

“Yes,” the king replied, “it is ‘a law of the Medes and Persians,’ that cannot be altered or revoked.”

¹³ Then they told the king, “That fellow Daniel, one of the Jewish captives, is paying no attention to you or your law. He is asking favors of his God three times a day.”

¹⁴ Hearing this, the king was very angry with himself for signing the law and determined to save Daniel. He spent the rest of the day trying to think of some way to get Daniel out of this predicament.

¹⁵ In the evening the men came again to the king and said, “Your Majesty, there is nothing you can do. You signed the law, and it cannot be changed.”

¹⁶ So at last the king gave the order for Daniel’s arrest, and he was taken to the den of lions. The king said to him, “May your God, whom you worship continually, deliver you.” And then they threw him in. ¹⁷ A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with that of his government, so that no one could rescue Daniel from the lions.

¹⁸ Then the king returned to his palace and went to bed without dinner. He refused his usual entertainment and didn’t sleep all night. ¹⁹ Very early the next morning he hurried out to the lions’ den ²⁰ and called out in anguish, “O Daniel, servant of the Living God, was your God, whom you worship continually, able to deliver you from the lions?”

²¹ Then he heard a voice! “Your Majesty, live forever!” It was Daniel! ²² “My God has sent his angel,” he said, “to shut the lions’ mouths so that they can’t touch me, for I am innocent before God; nor, sir, have I wronged you.”

²³ The king was beside himself with joy and ordered Daniel lifted from the den. And not a scratch was found on him because he believed in his God.

²⁴ Then the king issued a command to bring the men who had accused Daniel and throw them into the den along with their children and wives, and the lions leaped upon them and tore them apart before they even hit the bottom of the den.

^25-26 Afterward King Darius wrote this message addressed to everyone in his empire:

“Greetings! I decree that everyone shall tremble and fear before the God of Daniel in every part of my kingdom. For his God is the living, unchanging God whose kingdom shall never be destroyed and whose power shall never end. ²⁷ He delivers his people, preserving them from harm; he does great miracles in heaven and earth; it is he who delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.”

²⁸ So Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

7 One night during the first year of Belshazzar’s reign over the Babylonian Empire, Daniel had a dream and he wrote it down. This is his description of what he saw:

² In my dream I saw a great storm on a mighty ocean, with strong winds blowing from every direction. ³ Then four huge animals came up out of the water, each different from the other. ⁴ The first was like a lion, but it had eagle’s wings! And as I watched, its wings were pulled off so that it could no longer fly, and it was left standing on the ground, on two feet, like a man; and a man’s mind was given to it. ⁵ The second animal looked like a bear with its paw raised, ready to strike. It held three ribs between its teeth, and I heard a voice saying to it, “Get up! Devour many people!” ⁶ The third of these strange animals looked like a leopard, but on its back it had wings like those of birds, and it had four heads! And great power was given to it over all mankind.

⁷ Then, as I watched in my dream, a fourth animal rose up out of the ocean, too dreadful to describe and incredibly strong. It devoured some of its victims by tearing them apart with its huge iron teeth, and others it crushed beneath its feet. It was far more brutal and vicious than any of the other animals, and it had ten horns.

⁸ As I was looking at the horns, suddenly another small horn appeared among them, and three of the first ones were yanked out, roots and all, to give it room; this little horn had a man’s eyes and a bragging mouth.

⁹ I watched as thrones were put in place and the Ancient of Days—the Almighty God—sat down to judge. His clothing was as white as snow, his hair like whitest wool. He sat upon a fiery throne brought in on flaming wheels, and ¹⁰ a river of fire flowed from before him. Millions of angels ministered to him, and hundreds of millions of people stood before him, waiting to be judged. Then the court began its session, and the books were opened.

¹¹ As I watched, the brutal fourth animal was killed and its body handed over to be burned because of its arrogance against Almighty God and the boasting of its little horn. ¹² As for the other three animals, their kingdoms were taken from them, but they were allowed to live a short time longer.^[q]

¹³ Next I saw the arrival of a Man—or so he seemed to be—brought there on clouds from heaven; he approached the Ancient of Days and was presented to him. ¹⁴ He was given the ruling power and glory over all the nations of the world, so that all people of every language must obey him. His power is eternal—it will never end; his government shall never fall.

¹⁵ I was confused and disturbed by all I had seen (Daniel wrote in his report), ¹⁶ so I approached one of those standing beside the throne and asked him the meaning of all these things, and he explained them to me.

¹⁷ “These four huge animals,” he said, “represent four kings who will someday rule the earth. ¹⁸ But in the end the people of the Most High God shall rule the governments of the world forever and forever.”

¹⁹ Then I asked about the fourth animal, the one so brutal and shocking, with its iron teeth and brass claws that tore men apart and stamped others to death with its feet. ²⁰ I asked, too, about the ten horns and the little horn that came up afterward and destroyed three of the others—the horn with the eyes and the loud, bragging mouth, the one that was stronger than the others. ²¹ For I had seen this horn warring against God’s people and winning, ²² until the Ancient of Days came and opened his court and vindicated his people, giving them worldwide powers of government.

²³ “This fourth animal,” he told me, “is the fourth world power^[r] that will rule the earth. It will be more brutal than any of the others; it will devour the whole world, destroying everything before it. ²⁴ His ten horns are ten kings that will rise out of his empire; then another king^[s] will arise, more brutal than the other ten, and will destroy three of them. ²⁵ He will defy the Most High God and wear down the saints with persecution, and he will try to change all laws, morals, and customs.^[t] God’s people will be helpless in his hands for three and a half years.

²⁶ “But then the Ancient of Days will come^[u] and open his court of justice and take all power from this vicious king, to consume and destroy it until the end. ²⁷ Then all nations under heaven and their power shall be given to the people of God;^[v] they shall rule all things forever, and all rulers shall serve and obey them.”

²⁸ That was the end of the dream. When I awoke, I was greatly disturbed, and my face was pale with fright, but I told no one what I had seen.

8 In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, I had another dream similar to the first.

² This time I was at Susa,^[w] the capital in the province of Elam, standing beside the Ulai River. ³ As I was looking around, I saw a ram with two long horns standing on the riverbank; and as I watched, one of these horns began to grow, so that it was longer than the other. ⁴ The ram butted everything out of its way, and no one could stand against it or help its victims. It did as it pleased and became very great.

⁵ While I was wondering what this could mean, suddenly a buck goat appeared from the west so swiftly that it didn’t even touch the ground. This goat, which had one very large horn between its eyes, ⁶ rushed furiously at the two-horned ram. ⁷ And the closer he came, the angrier he was. He charged into the ram and broke off both his horns. Now the ram was helpless, and the buck goat knocked him down and trampled him, for there was no one to rescue him.

⁸ The victor became both proud and powerful, but suddenly, at the height of his power, his horn was broken, and in its place grew four good-sized horns^[x] pointing in four directions. ⁹ One of these, growing slowly at first, soon became very strong and attacked the south and east, and warred against the land of Israel.^{[y] 10} He fought against the people of God and defeated some of their leaders.^{[z] 11} He even challenged the Commander^[aa] of the army of heaven by canceling the daily sacrifices offered to him and by defiling his Temple. ¹² But the army of heaven was restrained from destroying him for this transgression. As a result, truth and righteousness perished, and evil triumphed and prospered.^[ab]

¹³ Then I heard two of the holy angels talking to each other. One of them said, “How long will it be until the daily sacrifice is restored again? How long until the destruction of the Temple is avenged and God’s people triumph?”

¹⁴ The other replied, “Twenty-three hundred days^[ac] must first go by.”

¹⁵ As I was trying to understand the meaning of this vision, suddenly a man was standing in front of me—or at least he looked like a man— ¹⁶ and I heard a man’s voice calling from across the river, “Gabriel, tell Daniel the meaning of his dream.”

¹⁷ So Gabriel started toward me. But as he approached, I was too frightened to stand and fell down with my face to the ground. “Son of man,” he said, “you must understand that the events you have seen in your vision will not take place until the end times come.”

¹⁸ Then I fainted, lying face downward on the ground. But he roused me with a touch and helped me to my feet. ¹⁹ “I am here,” he said, “to tell you what is going to happen in the last days of the coming time of terror—for what you have seen pertains to that final event in history.

²⁰ “The two horns of the ram you saw are the kings of Media and Persia; ²¹ the shaggy-haired goat is the nation of Greece, and its long horn represents the first great king of that country. ²² When you saw the horn break off and four smaller horns replace it, this meant that the Grecian Empire will break into four sections with four kings, none of them as great as the first.

²³ “Toward the end of their kingdoms, when they have become morally rotten, an angry king shall rise to power with great shrewdness and intelligence.^{[ad] 24} His power shall be mighty, but it will be satanic strength and not his own.^[ae] Prospering wherever he turns, he will destroy all who oppose him, though their armies be mighty, and he will devastate God’s people.

²⁵ “He will be a master of deception, defeating many by catching them off guard as they bask in false security. Without warning he will destroy them. So great will he fancy himself to be that he will even take on the Prince of Princes in battle; but in so doing he will seal his own doom, for he shall be broken by the hand of God, though no human means could overpower him.

²⁶ “And then in your vision you heard about the twenty-three hundred days to pass before the rights of worship are restored. This number is literal, and means just that.^[af] But none of these things will happen for a long time, so don’t tell anyone about them yet.”

²⁷ Then I grew faint and was sick for several days. Afterward I was up and around again and performed my duties for the king, but I was greatly distressed by the dream and did not understand it.

9 It was now the first year of the reign of King Darius, the son of Ahasuerus. (Darius was a Mede but became king of the Chaldeans.) ² In that first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from the book of Jeremiah the prophet that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years.^{[ag] 3} So I earnestly pleaded with the Lord God to end our captivity and send us back to our own land.^[ah]

As I prayed, I fasted and wore rough sackcloth, and I sprinkled myself with ashes ⁴ and confessed my sins and those of my people.

“O Lord,” I prayed, “you are a great and awesome God; you always fulfill your promises of mercy to those who love you and keep your laws. ⁵ But we have sinned so much; we have rebelled against you and scorned your commands. ⁶ We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, whom you sent again and again down through the years, with your messages to our kings and princes and to all the people.

⁷ “O Lord, you are righteous; but as for us, we are always shamefaced with sin, just as you see us now; yes, all of us—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel, scattered near and far wherever you have driven us because of our disloyalty to you. ⁸ O Lord, we and our kings and princes and fathers are weighted down with shame because of all our sins.

⁹ “But the Lord our God is merciful and pardons even those who have rebelled against him.

¹⁰ “O Lord our God, we have disobeyed you; we have flouted all the laws you gave us through your servants, the prophets. ¹¹ All Israel has disobeyed; we have turned away from you and haven’t listened to your voice. And so the awesome curse of God has crushed us—the curse written in the law of Moses your servant. ¹² And you have done exactly as you warned us you would do, for never in all history has there been a disaster like what happened at Jerusalem to us and our rulers. ¹³ Every curse against us written in the law of Moses has come true; all the evils he predicted—all have come. But even so we still refuse to satisfy the Lord our God by turning from our sins and doing right.

¹⁴ “And so the Lord deliberately crushed us with the calamity he prepared; he is fair in everything he does, but we would not obey. ¹⁵ O Lord our God, you brought lasting honor to your name by removing your people from Egypt in a great display of power. Lord, do it again! Though we have sinned so much and are full of wickedness, ¹⁶ yet because of all your faithful mercies, Lord, please turn away your furious anger from Jerusalem, your own city, your holy mountain. For the heathen mock at you because your city lies in ruins for our sins.

¹⁷ “O our God, hear your servant’s prayer! Listen as I plead! Let your face shine again with peace and joy upon your desolate sanctuary—for your own glory, Lord.

¹⁸ “O my God, bend down your ear and listen to my plea. Open your eyes and see our wretchedness, how your city lies in ruins—for everyone knows that it is yours. We don’t ask because we merit help, but because you are so merciful despite our grievous sins.

¹⁹ “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen to me and act! Don’t delay—for your own sake, O my God, because your people and your city bear your name.”

²⁰ Even while I was praying and confessing my sin and the sins of my people, desperately pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain, ²¹ Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, flew swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice ²² and said to me, “Daniel, I am here to help you understand God’s plans. ²³ The moment you began praying a command was given. I am here to tell you what it was, for God loves you very much. Listen and try to understand the meaning of the vision that you saw!

²⁴ “The Lord has commanded 490 years^[ai] of further punishment upon Jerusalem and your people. Then at last they will learn to stay away from sin, and their guilt will be cleansed; then the kingdom of everlasting righteousness will begin, and the Most Holy Place in the Temple will be rededicated, as the prophets have declared. ²⁵ Now listen! It will be 49 years plus 434 years^[aj] from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One comes! Jerusalem’s streets and walls will be rebuilt despite the perilous times.

²⁶ “After this period of 434 years, the Anointed One will be killed, his kingdom still unrealized . . . and a king will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. They will be overwhelmed as with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. ²⁷ This king will make a seven-year treaty with the people, but after half that time, he will break his pledge and stop the Jews from all their sacrifices and their offerings; then, as a climax to all his terrible deeds, the Enemy shall utterly defile the sanctuary of God. But in God’s time and plan, his judgment will be poured out upon this Evil One.”

10 In the third year of the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, Daniel (also called Belteshazzar) had another vision. It concerned events certain to happen in the future: times of great tribulation—wars and sorrows, and this time he understood what the vision meant.

² When this vision came to me (Daniel said later), I had been in mourning for three full weeks. ³ All that time I tasted neither wine nor meat, and, of course, I went without desserts. I neither washed nor shaved nor combed my hair.

⁴ Then one day early in April, as I was standing beside the great Tigris River, ^5-6 I looked up, and suddenly there before me stood a person robed in linen garments, with a belt of purest gold around his waist and glowing, lustrous skin! From his face came blinding flashes like lightning, and his eyes were pools of fire; his arms and feet shone like polished brass, and his voice was like the roaring of a vast multitude of people.

⁷ I, Daniel, alone saw this great vision; the men with me saw nothing, but they were suddenly filled with unreasoning terror and ran to hide, ⁸ so I was left alone. When I saw this frightening vision, my strength left me, and I grew pale and weak with fright.

⁹ Then he spoke to me, and I fell to the ground face downward in a deep faint. ¹⁰ But a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees. ¹¹ And I heard his voice—“O Daniel, greatly beloved of God,” he said, “stand up and listen carefully to what I have to say to you, for God has sent me to you.” So I stood up, still trembling with fear.

¹² Then he said, “Don’t be frightened, Daniel, for your request has been heard in heaven and was answered the very first day you began to fast before the Lord and pray for understanding; that very day I was sent here to meet you. ¹³ But for twenty-one days the mighty Evil Spirit^[ak] who overrules the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the top officers of the heavenly army, came to help me, so that I was able to break through these spirit rulers of Persia. ¹⁴ Now I am here to tell you what will happen to your people, the Jews, at the end times—for the fulfillment of this prophecy is many years away.”

¹⁵ All this time I was looking down, unable to speak a word. ¹⁶ Then someone—he looked like a man—touched my lips and I could talk again, and I said to the messenger from heaven, “Sir, I am terrified by your appearance and have no strength. ¹⁷ How can such a person as I even talk to you? For my strength is gone, and I can hardly breathe.”

¹⁸ Then the one who seemed to be a man touched me again, and I felt my strength returning. ¹⁹ “God loves you very much,” he said; “don’t be afraid! Calm yourself; be strong—yes, strong!”

Suddenly, as he spoke these words, I felt stronger and said to him, “Now you can go ahead and speak, sir, for you have strengthened me.”

^20-21 He replied, “Do you know why I have come? I am here to tell you what is written in the ‘Book of the Future.’ Then, when I leave, I will go again to fight my way back, past the prince of Persia; and after him, the prince of Greece. Only Michael, the angel who guards your people Israel,^[al] will be there to help me.

11 “I was the one sent to strengthen and help Darius the Mede in the first year of his reign. ² But now I will show you what the future holds. Three more Persian kings will reign, to be succeeded by a fourth,^[am] far richer than the others. Using his wealth for political advantage, he will plan total war against Greece.

³ “Then a mighty king will rise in Greece, a king who will rule a vast kingdom and accomplish everything he sets out to do.^{[an] 4} But at the zenith of his power, his kingdom will break apart and be divided into four weaker nations, not even ruled by his sons. For his empire will be torn apart and given to others. ⁵ One of them, the king of Egypt,^[ao] will increase in power, but this king’s own officials will rebel against him and take away his kingdom and make it still more powerful.

⁶ “Several years later an alliance will be formed between the king of Syria^[ap] and the king of Egypt. The daughter of the king of Egypt will be given in marriage to the king of Syria as a gesture of peace, but she will lose her influence over him, and not only will her hopes be blighted, but those of her father, the king of Egypt, and of her ambassador and child. ⁷ But when her brother^[aq] takes over as king of Egypt, he will raise an army against the king of Syria and march against him and defeat him. ⁸ When he returns again to Egypt, he will carry back their idols with him, along with priceless gold and silver dishes; and for many years afterward he will leave the Syrian king alone.

⁹ “Meanwhile, the king of Syria^[ar] will invade Egypt briefly but will soon return again to his own land. ^10-11 However, the sons of this Syrian king will assemble a mighty army that will overflow across Israel into Egypt, to a fortress there. Then the king of Egypt,^[as] in great anger, will rally against the vast forces of Syria and defeat them. ¹² Filled with pride after this great victory, he will have many thousands of his enemies killed, but his success will be short-lived.

¹³ “A few years later the Syrian king^[at] will return with a fully equipped army far greater than the one he lost, ¹⁴ and other nations will join him in a crusade against Egypt. Insurgents among your own people, the Jews, will join them, thus fulfilling prophecy,^[au] but they will not succeed. ¹⁵ Then the Syrian king and his allies will come and lay siege to a fortified city of Egypt and capture it, and the proud armies of Egypt will go down to defeat.

¹⁶ “The Syrian king will march onward unopposed; none will be able to stop him. And he will also enter ‘The Glorious Land’ of Israel and pillage it. ¹⁷ This will be his plot for conquering all Egypt: he, too, will form an alliance with the Egyptian king, giving him a daughter in marriage, so that she can work for him from within. But the plan will fail.

¹⁸ “After this he will turn his attention to the coastal cities and conquer many. But a general will stop him and cause him to retreat in shame. ¹⁹ He will turn homeward again but will have trouble on the way and disappear.

²⁰ “His successor^[av] will be remembered as the king who sent a tax collector into Israel, but after a very brief reign, he will die mysteriously, though neither in battle nor in riot.

²¹ “Next to come to power will be an evil man not directly in line for royal succession.^[aw] But during a crisis he will take over the kingdom by flattery and intrigue. ²² Then all opposition will be swept away before him, including a leader of the priests.^{[ax] 23} His promises will be worthless. From the first his method will be deceit; with a mere handful of followers, he will become strong. ²⁴ He will enter the richest areas of the land without warning and do something never done before: he will take the property and wealth of the rich and scatter it out among the people. With great success he will besiege and capture powerful strongholds throughout his dominions, but this will last for only a short while. ²⁵ Then he will stir up his courage and raise a great army against Egypt; and Egypt, too, will raise a mighty army, but to no avail, for plots against him will succeed.

²⁶ “Those of his own household will bring his downfall; his army will desert, and many will be killed.

²⁷ “Both these kings^[ay] will be plotting against each other at the conference table, attempting to deceive each other. But it will make no difference, for neither can succeed until God’s appointed time has come.

²⁸ “The Syrian king will then return home with great riches, first marching through Israel and destroying it. ²⁹ Then at the predestined time he will once again turn his armies southward, as he had threatened, but now it will be a very different story from those first two occasions. ^30-31 For Roman warships^[az] will scare him off, and he will withdraw and return home. Angered by having to retreat, the Syrian king will again pillage Jerusalem and pollute the sanctuary, putting a stop to the daily sacrifices, and worshiping idols inside the Temple. He will leave godless Jews in power when he leaves—men who have abandoned their fathers’ faith. ³² He will flatter those who hate the things of God^[ba] and win them over to his side. But the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things.

³³ “Those with spiritual understanding will have a wide ministry of teaching in those days. But they will be in constant danger, many of them dying by fire and sword, or being jailed and robbed. ³⁴ Eventually these pressures will subside, and some ungodly men will come, pretending to offer a helping hand, only to take advantage of them.

³⁵ “And some who are most gifted in the things of God will stumble in those days and fall, but this will only refine and cleanse them and make them pure until the final end of all their trials, at God’s appointed time.

³⁶ “The king will do exactly as he pleases, claiming to be greater than every god there is, even blaspheming the God of gods, and prospering—until his time is up. For God’s plans are unshakable. ³⁷ He will have no regard for the gods of his fathers, nor for the god beloved of women,^[bb] nor any other god, for he will boast that he is greater than them all. ³⁸ Instead of these, he will worship the Fortress god^[bc]—a god his fathers never knew—and lavish on him costly gifts! ³⁹ Claiming this god’s help, he will have great success against the strongest fortresses. He will honor those who submit to him, appointing them to positions of authority and dividing the land to them as their reward.

⁴⁰ “Then at the time of the end,^[bd] the king of the south will attack him again, and the northern king will react with the strength and fury of a whirlwind; his vast army and navy will rush out to bury him with their might. ⁴¹ He will invade various lands on the way, including Israel, the Pleasant Land, and overthrow the governments of many nations. Moab, Edom, and most of Ammon will escape, ⁴² but Egypt and many other lands will be occupied. ⁴³ He will capture all the treasures of Egypt, and the Libyans and Ethiopians shall be his servants.

⁴⁴ “But then news from the east and north will alarm him, and he will return in great anger to destroy as he goes. ⁴⁵ He will halt between Jerusalem and the sea and there pitch his royal tents, but while he is there his time will suddenly run out, and there will be no one to help him.

12 “At that time Michael, the mighty angelic prince who stands guard over your nation, will stand up and fight for you in heaven against satanic forces,^[be] and there will be a time of anguish for the Jews greater than any previous suffering in Jewish history. And yet every one of your people whose names are written in the Book will endure it.

² “And many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

³ “And those who are wise—the people of God—shall shine as brightly as the sun’s brilliance, and those who turn many to righteousness will glitter like stars forever.

⁴ “But Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal it up so that it will not be understood until the end times, when travel and education shall be vastly increased!”

⁵ Then I, Daniel, looked and saw two men^[bf] on each bank of a river. ⁶ And one of them asked the man in linen robes who was standing now above the river, “How long will it be until all these terrors end?”

⁷ He replied, with both hands lifted to heaven, taking oath by him who lives forever and ever, that they will not end until three and a half years after the power of God’s people has been crushed.^[bg]

⁸ I heard what he said, but I didn’t understand what he meant. So I said, “Sir, how will all this finally end?”

⁹ But he said, “Go now, Daniel, for what I have said is not to be understood until the time of the end. ¹⁰ Many shall be purified by great trials and persecutions. But the wicked shall continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are willing to learn will know what it means.

¹¹ “From the time the daily sacrifice is taken away and the Horrible Thing is set up to be worshiped, there will be 1,290 days.^{[bh] 12} And blessed are those who wait and remain until the 1,335th day!

¹³ “But go on now to the end of your life and your rest; for you will rise again and have your full share of those last days.”^[bi]

1 ^1-2 Three years after King Jehoiakim began to rule in Judah, Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem with his armies, and the Lord gave him victory over Jehoiakim. When he returned to Babylon, he took along some of the sacred cups from the Temple of God and placed them in the treasury of his god in the land of Shinar.

^3-4 Then he ordered Ashpenaz, who was in charge of his palace personnel,^[a] to select some of the Jewish youths brought back as captives—young men of the royal family and nobility of Judah—and to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. “Pick strong, healthy, good-looking lads,” he said; “those who have read widely in many fields, are well informed, alert and sensible, and have enough poise to look good around the palace.”

⁵ The king assigned them the best of food and wine from his own kitchen during their three-year training period, planning to make them his counselors when they graduated.

⁶ Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. ⁷ However, their superintendent gave them Babylonian names, as follows:

⁸ But Daniel made up his mind not to eat^[b] the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the superintendent for permission to eat other things instead. ⁹ Now as it happened, God had given the superintendent a special appreciation for Daniel and sympathy for his predicament. ¹⁰ But he was alarmed by Daniel’s suggestion.

“I’m afraid you will become pale and thin compared with the other youths your age,” he said, “and then the king will behead me for neglecting my responsibilities.”

¹¹ Daniel talked it over with the steward who was appointed by the superintendent to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹² and suggested a ten-day diet of only vegetables and water; ¹³ then, at the end of this trial period the steward could see how they looked in comparison with the other fellows who ate the king’s rich food and decide whether or not to let them continue their diet.

¹⁴ The steward finally agreed to the test. ¹⁵ Well, at the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the youths who had been eating the food supplied by the king! ¹⁶ So after that the steward fed them only vegetables and water, without the rich foods and wines!

¹⁷ God gave these four youths great ability to learn, and they soon mastered all the literature and science of the time; and God gave to Daniel special ability in understanding the meanings of dreams and visions.

^18-19 When the three-year training period was completed, the superintendent brought all the young men to the king for oral exams, as he had been ordered to do. King Nebuchadnezzar had long talks with each of them, and none of them impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they were put on his regular staff of advisors. ²⁰ And in all matters requiring information and balanced judgment, the king found these young men’s advice ten times better than that of all the skilled magicians and wise astrologers in his realm.

²¹ Daniel held this appointment as the king’s counselor until the first year of the reign of King Cyrus.

2 ^1-3 One night in the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had a terrifying nightmare and awoke trembling with fear. And to make matters worse, he couldn’t remember his dream! He immediately called in all his magicians, incantationists, sorcerers, and astrologers, and demanded that they tell him what his dream had been.

“I’ve had a terrible nightmare,” he said as they stood before him, “and I can’t remember what it was. Tell me, for I fear some tragedy awaits me.”

⁴ Then the astrologers (speaking in Aramaic) said to the king, “Sir, tell us the dream and then we can tell you what it means.”

⁵ But the king replied, “I tell you the dream is gone—I can’t remember it. And if you won’t tell me what it was and what it means, I’ll have you torn limb from limb and your houses made into heaps of rubble! ⁶ But I will give you many wonderful gifts and honors if you tell me what the dream was and what it means. So, begin!”

⁷ They said again, “How can we tell you what the dream means unless you tell us what it was?”

^8-9 The king retorted, “I can see your trick! You’re trying to stall for time until the calamity befalls me that the dream foretells. But if you don’t tell me the dream, you certainly can’t expect me to believe your interpretation!”

¹⁰ The astrologers replied to the king, “There isn’t a man alive who can tell others what they have dreamed! And there isn’t a king in all the world who would ask such a thing! ¹¹ This is an impossible thing the king requires. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they are not here to help.”

¹² Upon hearing this, the king was furious and sent out orders to execute all the wise men of Babylon. ¹³ And Daniel and his companions were rounded up with the others to be killed.

¹⁴ But when Arioch, the chief executioner, came to kill them, Daniel handled the situation with great wisdom by asking, ¹⁵ “Why is the king so angry? What is the matter?”

Then Arioch told him all that had happened.

¹⁶ So Daniel went in to see the king. “Give me a little time,” he said, “and I will tell you the dream and what it means.”

¹⁷ Then he went home and told Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. ¹⁸ They asked the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not die with the others. ¹⁹ And that night in a vision God told Daniel what the king had dreamed.

Then Daniel praised the God of heaven, ²⁰ saying, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for he alone has all wisdom and all power. ²¹ World events are under his control. He removes kings and sets others on their thrones. He gives wise men their wisdom and scholars their intelligence. ²² He reveals profound mysteries beyond man’s understanding. He knows all hidden things, for he is light, and darkness is no obstacle to him. ²³ I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers, for you have given me wisdom and glowing health, and now even this vision of the king’s dream and the understanding of what it means.”

²⁴ Then Daniel went in to see Arioch, who had been ordered to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said, “Don’t kill them. Take me to the king, and I will tell him what he wants to know.”

²⁵ Then Arioch hurried Daniel in to the king and said, “I’ve found one of the Jewish captives who will tell you your dream!”

²⁶ The king said to Daniel, “Is this true? Can you tell me what my dream was and what it means?”

²⁷ Daniel replied, “No wise man, astrologer, magician, or wizard can tell the king such things, ²⁸ but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has told you in your dream what will happen in the future. This was your dream:

²⁹ “You dreamed of coming events. He who reveals secrets was speaking to you. ³⁰ (But remember, it’s not because I am wiser than any living person that I know this secret of your dream, for God showed it to me for your benefit.)

³¹ “O king, you saw a huge and powerful statue of a man, shining brilliantly, frightening and terrible. ³² The head of the statue was made of purest gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet part iron and part clay. ³⁴ But as you watched, a Rock was cut from the mountainside^[c] by supernatural means. It came hurtling toward the statue and crushed the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. ³⁵ Then the whole statue collapsed into a heap of iron, clay, brass, silver, and gold; its pieces were crushed as small as chaff, and the wind blew them all away. But the Rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.

³⁶ “That was the dream; now for its meaning:

³⁷ “Your Majesty, you are a king over many kings, for the God of heaven has given you your kingdom, power, strength, and glory. ³⁸ You rule the farthest provinces, and even animals and birds are under your control, as God decreed. You are that head of gold.

³⁹ “But after your kingdom has come to an end, another world power^[d] will arise to take your place. This empire will be inferior to yours. And after that kingdom has fallen, yet a third great power—represented by the bronze belly of the statue—will rise to rule the world. ⁴⁰ Following it, the fourth kingdom^[e] will be strong as iron—smashing, bruising, and conquering. ^41-42 The feet and toes you saw—part iron and part clay—show that later on, this kingdom will be divided. Some parts of it will be as strong as iron, and some as weak as clay. ⁴³ This mixture of iron with clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage of their rulers; but this will not succeed, for iron and clay don’t mix.

⁴⁴ “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it shall stand forever, indestructible. ⁴⁵ That is the meaning of the Rock cut from the mountain without human hands—the Rock that crushed to powder all the iron and brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold.

“Thus the great God has shown what will happen in the future, and this interpretation of your dream is as sure and certain as my description of it.”

⁴⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar fell to the ground before Daniel and worshiped him and commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burn sweet incense before him.

⁴⁷ “Truly, O Daniel,” the king said, “your God is the God of gods, Ruler of kings, the Revealer of mysteries, because he has told you this secret.”

⁴⁸ Then the king made Daniel very great; he gave him many valuable gifts and appointed him to be ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men.

⁴⁹ Then, at Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as Daniel’s assistants, to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon; Daniel served as chief magistrate in the king’s court.

3 King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet high and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon; ² then he sent messages to all the princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, counselors, sheriffs, and rulers of all the provinces of his empire, to come to the dedication of his statue. ³ When they had all arrived and were standing before the monument, ⁴ a herald shouted out, “O people of all nations and languages, this is the king’s command:

⁵ “When the band^[f] strikes up, you are to fall flat on the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue; ⁶ anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a flaming furnace.”

⁷ So when the band began to play, everyone—whatever his nation, language, or religion^[g]—fell to the ground and worshiped the statue.

⁸ But some officials went to the king and accused some of the Jews of refusing to worship!

⁹ “Your Majesty,” they said to him, ¹⁰ “you made a law that everyone must fall down and worship the gold statue when the band begins to play, ¹¹ and that anyone who refuses will be thrown into a flaming furnace. ¹² But there are some Jews out there—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whom you have put in charge of Babylonian affairs—who have defied you, refusing to serve your gods or to worship the gold statue you set up.”

¹³ Then Nebuchadnezzar, in a terrible rage, ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be brought in before him.

¹⁴ “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,” he demanded, “that you are refusing to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue I set up? ¹⁵ I’ll give you one more chance. When the music plays, if you fall down and worship the statue, all will be well. But if you refuse, you will be thrown into a flaming furnace within the hour. And what god can deliver you out of my hands then?”

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not worried about what will happen to us. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the flaming furnace, our God is able to deliver us; and he will deliver us out of your hand, Your Majesty. ¹⁸ But if he doesn’t, please understand, sir, that even then we will never under any circumstance serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have erected.”

¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and his face became dark with anger at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He commanded that the furnace be heated up seven times hotter than usual, ²⁰ and called for some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and throw them into the fire. ²¹ So they bound them tight with ropes and threw them into the furnace, fully clothed. ²² And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames leaped out and killed the soldiers as they threw them in! ²³ So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell down bound into the roaring flames.

²⁴ But suddenly, as he was watching, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisors, “Didn’t we throw three men into the furnace?”

“Yes,” they said, “we did indeed, Your Majesty.”

²⁵ “Well, look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire, and they aren’t even hurt by the flames! And the fourth looks like a god!”^[h]

²⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the open door of the flaming furnace and yelled: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God! Come out! Come here!” So they stepped out of the fire.

²⁷ Then the princes, governors, captains, and counselors crowded around them and saw that the fire hadn’t touched them—not a hair of their heads was singed; their coats were unscorched, and they didn’t even smell of smoke!

²⁸ Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, for he sent his angel to deliver his trusting servants when they defied the king’s commandment and were willing to die rather than serve or worship any god except their own. ²⁹ Therefore, I make this decree, that any person of any nation, language, or religion^[i] who speaks a word against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and his house knocked into a heap of rubble. For no other God can do what this one does.”

³⁰ Then the king gave promotions to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so that they prospered greatly there in the province of Babylon.

4 This is the proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar the king, which he sent to people of every language in every nation of the world:

Greetings:

² I want you all to know about the strange thing that the Most High God did to me. ³ It was incredible—a mighty miracle! And now I know for sure that his kingdom is everlasting; he reigns forever and ever.

⁴ I, Nebuchadnezzar, was living in peace and prosperity, ⁵ when one night I had a dream that greatly frightened me. ⁶ I called in all the wise men of Babylon to tell me the meaning of my dream, ⁷ but when they came—the magicians, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and wizards—and I told them the dream, they couldn’t interpret it. ⁸ At last Daniel came in—the man I named Belteshazzar after my god—the man in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and I told him the dream.

⁹ “O Belteshazzar, master magician,” I said, “I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery is too great for you to solve. Tell me what my dream means:

^10-11 “I saw a very tall tree out in a field, growing higher and higher into the sky until it could be seen by everyone in all the world. ¹² Its leaves were fresh and green, and its branches were weighted down with fruit, enough for everyone to eat. Wild animals rested beneath its shade and birds sheltered in its branches, and all the world was fed from it. ¹³ Then as I lay there dreaming, I saw one of God’s angels^[j] coming down from heaven.

¹⁴ “He shouted, ‘Cut down the tree; lop off its branches; shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit. Get the animals out from under it and the birds from its branches, ¹⁵ but leave its stump and roots in the ground, banded with a chain of iron and brass, surrounded by the tender grass. Let the dew of heaven drench him and let him eat grass with the wild animals! ¹⁶ For seven years let him have the mind of an animal instead of a man. ¹⁷ For this has been decreed by the Watchers, demanded by the Holy Ones. The purpose of this decree is that all the world may understand that the Most High dominates the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he wants to, even the lowliest of men!’

¹⁸ “O Belteshazzar, that was my dream; now tell me what it means. For no one else can help me; all the wisest men of my kingdom have failed me. But you can tell me, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

¹⁹ Then Daniel^[k] sat there stunned and silent for an hour, aghast at the meaning of the dream. Finally the king said to him: “Belteshazzar, don’t be afraid to tell me what it means.”

Daniel replied: “Oh, that the events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to your enemies, my lord, and not to you! ²⁰ For the tree you saw growing so tall, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see, ²¹ with its fresh green leaves, loaded with fruit for all to eat, the wild animals living in its shade, with its branches full of birds— ²² that tree, Your Majesty, is you. For you have grown strong and great; your greatness reaches up to heaven, and your rule to the ends of the earth.

²³ “Then you saw God’s angel^[l] coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump and the roots in the earth surrounded by tender grass, banded with a chain of iron and brass. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. For seven years let him eat grass with the animals of the field.’

²⁴ “Your Majesty, the Most High God has decreed—and it will surely happen— ²⁵ that your people will chase you from your palace, and you will live in the fields like an animal, eating grass like a cow, your back wet with dew from heaven. For seven years this will be your life, until you learn that the Most High God dominates the kingdoms of men and gives power to anyone he chooses. ²⁶ But the stump and the roots were left in the ground! This means that you will get your kingdom back again when you have learned that heaven rules.

²⁷ “O King Nebuchadnezzar, listen to me—stop sinning; do what you know is right; be merciful to the poor. Perhaps even yet God will spare you.”

²⁸ But all these things happened to Nebuchadnezzar. ²⁹ Twelve months after this dream, he was strolling on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, ³⁰ and saying, “I, by my own mighty power, have built this beautiful city as my royal residence and as the capital of my empire.”

³¹ While he was still speaking these words, a voice called down from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you: You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. ³² You will be forced out of the palace to live with the animals in the fields and to eat grass like the cows for seven years, until you finally realize that God parcels out the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he chooses.”

³³ That very same hour this prophecy was fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar was chased from his palace and ate grass like the cows, and his body was wet with dew; his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.

³⁴ “At the end of seven years^[m] I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High God and honored him who lives forever, whose rule is everlasting, his kingdom evermore. ³⁵ All the people of the earth are nothing when compared to him; he does whatever he thinks best among the angels of heaven, as well as here on earth. No one can stop him or challenge him, saying, ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’ ³⁶ When my mind returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My counselors and officers came back to me, and I was reestablished as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.

³⁷ “Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of Heaven, the Judge of all, whose every act is right and good; for he is able to take those who walk proudly and push them into the dust!”

5 Belshazzar the king invited a thousand of his officers to a great feast where the wine flowed freely. ^2-4 While Belshazzar was drinking, he was reminded of the gold and silver cups taken long before from the Temple in Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and brought to Babylon. Belshazzar ordered that these sacred cups be brought in to the feast, and when they arrived, he and his princes, wives, and concubines drank toasts from them to their idols made of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and stone.

⁵ Suddenly, as they were drinking from these cups, they saw the fingers of a man’s hand writing on the plaster of the wall opposite the lampstand. The king himself saw the fingers as they wrote. ⁶ His face blanched with fear, and such terror gripped him that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way beneath him.

⁷ “Bring the magicians and astrologers!” he screamed. “Bring the Chaldeans! Whoever reads that writing on the wall and tells me what it means will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor, with a gold chain around his neck, and he will become the third ruler in the kingdom!”^[n]

⁸ But when they came, none of them could understand the writing or tell him what it meant.

⁹ The king grew more and more hysterical; his face reflected the terror he felt, and his officers too were shaken. ¹⁰ But when the queen mother heard what was happening, she rushed to the banquet hall and said to Belshazzar, “Calm yourself, Your Majesty, don’t be so pale and frightened over this. ¹¹ For there is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father this man was found to be as full of wisdom and understanding as though he were himself a god. And in the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar,^[o] he was made chief of all the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers of Babylon. ¹² Call for this man, Daniel—or Belteshazzar, as the king called him—for his mind is filled with divine knowledge and understanding. He can interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve knotty problems. He will tell you what the writing means.”

¹³ So Daniel was rushed in to see the king. The king asked him, “Are you the Daniel brought from Israel as a captive by King Nebuchadnezzar? ¹⁴ I have heard that you have the spirit of the gods within you and that you are filled with enlightenment and wisdom. ¹⁵ My wise men and astrologers have tried to read that writing on the wall and tell me what it means, but they can’t. ¹⁶ I am told you can solve all kinds of mysteries. If you can tell me the meaning of those words, I will clothe you in purple robes, with a gold chain around your neck, and make you the third ruler in the kingdom.”

¹⁷ Daniel answered, “Keep your gifts or give them to someone else, but I will tell you what the writing means. ¹⁸ Your Majesty, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, who long ago preceded you, a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor. ¹⁹ He gave him such majesty that all the nations of the world trembled before him in fear. He killed any who offended him and spared any he liked. At his whim they rose or fell. ²⁰ But when his heart and mind were hardened in pride, God removed him from his royal throne and took away his glory. ²¹ He was chased out of his palace into the fields. His thoughts and feelings became those of an animal, and he lived among the wild donkeys; he ate grass like the cows, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until at last he knew that the Most High overrules the kingdoms of men and appoints anyone he desires to reign over them.

²² “And you, his successor, O Belshazzar—you knew all this, yet you have not been humble. ²³ For you have defied the Lord of Heaven and brought here these cups from his Temple; and you and your officers and wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, brass, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not praised the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny! ^24-25 And so God sent those fingers to write this message: ‘Mene,’ ‘Mene,’ ‘Tekel,’ ‘Parsin.’

²⁶ “This is what it means:

“Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign, and they are ended.

²⁷ “Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed in God’s balances and have failed the test.

²⁸ “Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom will be divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

²⁹ Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was robed in purple, a gold chain was hung around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰ That very night Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed, ³¹ and Darius the Mede^[p] entered the city and began reigning at the age of sixty-two.

6 Darius divided the kingdom into 120 provinces, each under a governor. ² The governors were accountable to three presidents (Daniel was one of them) so the king could administer the kingdom efficiently.