Chapter 2

¹ In the second year of his reign Nabuchodonosor dreamed a dream, and his spirit was amazed, and his sleep departed from him. ² And the king gave orders to call the enchanters, and the magicians, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to declare to the king his dreams. And they came and stood before the king.

³ And the king said to them, I have dreamed, and my spirit was ¹troubled to know the dream. ⁴ And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in the Syrian language, saying, O king, live for ever: do thou tell the dream to thy servants, and we will declare the interpretation. ⁵ The king answered the Chaldeans, The thing has departed from me: if ye do not make known to me the dream and the interpretation, ye shall be destroyed, and your houses shall be spoiled. ⁶ But if ye make known to me the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and presents and much honour: only tell me the dream, and the interpretation thereof. ⁷ They answered the second time, and said, Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.

⁸ And the king answered and said, I verily know that ye are ²trying to gain time, because ye see that the thing has gone from me. ⁹ If then ye do not tell me the dream, I know that ye have concerted to utter before me a false and corrupt tale, until the time shall have past: tell me my dream, and I shall know that ye will also declare to me the interpretation thereof. ¹⁰ The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is no man upon the earth, who shall be able to make known the king's matter: forasmuch as no great king or ruler asks such a question of an enchanter, magician, or Chaldean. ¹¹ For the question which the king asks is difficult, and there is no one else who shall answer it before the king, but the gods, whose dwelling is not with any flesh.

1051

¹² Then the king in rage and anger commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. ¹³ So the decree went forth, and they began to slay the wise men; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to slay them.

¹⁴ Then Daniel answered with counsel and prudence to Arioch the ³captain of the royal guard, who was gone forth to kill the wise men of Babylon; saying, ¹⁵ Chief magistrate of the king, wherefore has the preemptory command proceeded from the king? So Arioch made known the matter to Daniel. ¹⁶ And Daniel intreated the king to give him time, and that he might thus declare to the king the interpretation of it. ¹⁷ So Daniel went into his house, and made known the matter to Ananias, and Misael, and Azarias, his friends. ¹⁸ And they sought mercies from the God of heaven concerning this mystery; that Daniel and his friends might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

¹⁹ Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night; and Daniel blessed the God of heaven, and said,

²⁰ May the name of God be blessed from everlasting and to everlasting: for wisdom and understanding are his. ²¹ And he changes times and seasons: he appoints kings, and removes them, giving wisdom to the wise, and prudence to them that have understanding: ²² he reveals deep and secret matters; knowing what is in darkness, and the light is with him. ²³ I give thanks to thee, and praise thee, O God of my fathers, for thou has given me wisdom and power, and has made known to me the things which we asked of thee; and thou has made known to me the king's vision.

²⁴ And Daniel came to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon, and said to him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon, but bring me in before the king, and I will declare the interpretation to the king. ²⁵ Then Arioch in haste brought in Daniel before the king, and said to him, I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Judea, who will declare the interpretation to the king. ²⁶ And the king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Baltasar, Canst thou declare to me the dream which I saw, and the interpretation thereof?

²⁷ And Daniel answered before the king, and said, The mystery which the king asks the explanation of is not in the power of the wise men, magicians, enchanters, or soothsayers to declare to the king. ²⁸ But there is a God in heaven revealing mysteries, and he has made known to king Nabuchodonosor what things must come to pass in the last days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are as follows, ²⁹ O king: thy thoughts upon thy bed arose as to what must come to pass hereafter: and he that reveals mysteries has made known to thee what must come to pass. ³⁰ Moreover, this mystery has not been revealed to me by reason of wisdom which is in me beyond all others living, but for the sake of

1052

making known the interpretation to the king, that thou mightest know the thoughts of thine heart.

³¹ Thou, O king, sawest, and behold ⁴an image: that image was great, and the appearance of it excellent, standing before thy face; and the form of it was terrible. ³² It was an image, the head of which was of fine gold, its hands and breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet, part of iron and part of earthenware. ³⁴ Thou sawest until a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, and it smote the image upon its feet of iron and earthenware, and utterly reduced them to powder. ³⁵ Then once for all the earthenware, the iron, the brass, the silver, the gold, were ground to powder, and became as ⁵chaff from the summer threshingfloor; and the violence of the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them: and the stone which had smitten the image became a great mountain, and filled all the earth. ³⁶ This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

³⁷ Thou, O king, art a king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given a powerful and strong and honourable kingdom, ³⁸ in every place where the children of men dwell: and he has given into thine hand the wild beasts of the field, and the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, and he has made thee lord of all. ³⁹ Thou art the head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, an a third kingdom which is the brass, which shall have dominion over all the earth; ⁴⁰ and a fourth kingdom, which shall be strong as iron: as iron beats to powder and subdues all things, so shall it beat to powder and subdue. ⁴¹ And whereas thou sawest the feet and the toes, part of earthenware and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet there shall be in it ⁶of the strength of iron, as thou sawest the iron mixed with earthenware. ⁴² And whereas the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of earthenware, part of the kingdom shall be strong, and part of it shall be broken. ⁴³ Whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with earthenware, they shall be mingled with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave together, as the iron does not mix itself with earthenware.

⁴⁴ And in the days of those kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and his kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall beat to pieces and grind to powder all other kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. ⁴⁵ Whereas thou sawest that a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, and it beat to pieces the earthenware, the iron, the brass, the silver, the gold; the great God has made known to the king what must happen hereafter: and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof sure.

⁴⁶ Then king Nabuchodonosor fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and gave orders to offer to him gifts and incense. ⁴⁷ And the king answered and said to Daniel, Of a truth your God is a God of gods, and

1053

Lord of kings, who reveals mysteries; for thou has been able to reveal this mystery. ⁴⁸ And the king promoted Daniel, and gave him great and abundant gifts, and set him over the whole province of Babylon, and made him chief satrap over all the wise men of Babylon. ⁴⁹ And Daniel asked of the king, and he appointed Sedrach, Misach, and Abdenago, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel was in the king's palace.