Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

2 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. ² Then the king gave the command to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. ³ The king said to them, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.”

⁴ Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic,^[a] “O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will tell the interpretation.”

⁵ The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The command from me is firm: If you will not make known to me the dream with its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill. ⁶ But if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore tell me the dream and its interpretation.”

⁷ They answered again and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will tell the interpretation.”

⁸ The king answered and said, “I know of certainty that you are bargaining for time, because you see that the command from me is firm: ⁹ If you will not make known to me the dream, there is but one decree for you. For you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the circumstance is changed. Therefore tell me the dream so that I know that you can tell me its interpretation.”

¹⁰ The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, “There is not a man on the earth who can tell the king’s matter, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician or astrologer or Chaldean. ¹¹ Also, it is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is no one else who can tell it before the king, except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

¹² For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. ¹³ Therefore the decree went out that the wise men should be slain. And they sought for Daniel and his companions to be slain.

¹⁴ Then Daniel answered with discretion and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁵ He answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, “Why is the decree from the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. ¹⁶ Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time in order that he could tell the king the interpretation.

¹⁷ Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, ¹⁸ so that they might ask for compassion from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

God Reveals Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

¹⁹ Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. ²⁰ Daniel answered and said:

Daniel Interprets the Dream

²⁴ Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation.”

²⁵ Then in haste Arioch brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah who can make known to the king the interpretation.”

²⁶ The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?”

²⁷ Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot tell the king. ²⁸ But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and makes known to King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed are these:

²⁹ “As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind upon your bed about what would come to pass hereafter, and He who reveals secrets makes known to you what shall come to pass. ³⁰ But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living man, but for the purpose of making known the interpretation to the king, and that you might understand the thoughts of your heart.

³¹ “You, O king, were watching, and there was a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you. And its form was awesome. ³² This image’s head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴ You watched until a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image upon its feet, which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

³⁶ “This was the dream. Now we will tell its interpretation before the king. ³⁷ You, O king, are the king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. ³⁸ Wherever the sons of men dwell, or the animals of the field, or the fowl of the heavens, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.

³⁹ “After you, another kingdom inferior to you shall arise, and a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. ⁴⁰ And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, it shall crush and shatter all these. ⁴¹ As you saw the feet and toes, partly of potters’ clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. But there shall be in it some of the strength of the iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. ⁴² As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. ⁴³ Whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay.

⁴⁴ “In the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. ⁴⁵ Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”

The Promotion of Daniel

⁴⁶ Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and did homage to Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and sweet incense to him. ⁴⁷ The king answered Daniel and said, “Truly your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.”

⁴⁸ Then the king advanced Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. ⁴⁹ Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat at the court of the king.

Daniel’s Vision of the Four Beasts

7 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his mind while on his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters.

² Daniel spoke and said: I saw in my vision by night the four winds of the heaven striving upon the Mediterranean Sea. ³ Four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse from one another.

⁴ The first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings. I watched until its wings were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.

⁵ Another beast appeared, a second, like a bear, and it raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said to it, “Arise, devour much flesh.”

⁶ After this I looked and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a fowl. The beast also had four heads. And dominion was given to it.

⁷ After this I saw in the visions at night a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and exceedingly strong. And it had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet. And it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.

⁸ I considered the horns, when there came up among them another little horn before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

The Ancient of Days Reigns

⁹ I watched until

¹¹ Then I watched because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking. I watched even until the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. ¹² As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away; yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.

¹³ I saw in the night visions, and there was one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. ¹⁴ There was given to Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

The Interpretation of the Dream

¹⁵ I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. ¹⁶ I approached one of those who were standing by and asked him the truth of all this.

So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. ¹⁷ “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. ¹⁸ But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.”

¹⁹ Then I desired to know the truth of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron and its nails of bronze, and which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet; ²⁰ and of the ten horns that were in its head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastful words, whose look was more stout than its fellows. ²¹ I beheld, and the same horn was warring with the saints and prevailing against them ²² until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.

²³ Thus he said: “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be different from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. ²⁴ The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them, and he shall be different from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. ²⁵ He shall speak words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and plan to change times and law. And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.^[a]

²⁶ “But the court shall sit for judgment, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it forever. ²⁷ Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.”

²⁸ At this point the matter ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts troubled me much, and my countenance changed in me; but I kept the matter in my heart.