1 In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; his spirit was disturbed and his sleep left him.
2 The king ordered that the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and Chaldeans be called to tell the king what he had dreamed. They came in and stood before the king.
3 The king told them, "I had a dream, and my spirit is disturbed to know what the dream was."
4 The Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: "O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will reveal the interpretation."
5 The king replied to the Chaldeans, "My decision is firm: if you do not tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut to pieces and your houses turned into rubbish heaps.
6 But if you reveal the dream and its interpretation, you will receive gifts, a reward and great honor from me. So reveal the dream and its interpretation to me."
7 They replied a second time, "Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will reveal the interpretation."
8 The king replied, "I know for sure that you are stalling for time, because you see that my decision is firm:
9 if you do not tell me the dream, there is one sentence for you all. You have agreed among yourselves to tell me lies and deceptions until the situation changes. So tell me the dream, and then I will know that you can reveal its interpretation to me."
10 The Chaldeans answered the king, "There is not a man on earth who can reveal what the king asks; no king, however great and mighty, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, enchanter or Chaldean.
11 What the king asks is too hard, and no one can reveal it to the king except the gods, who do not live among mortals."
12 At this the king flew into a rage and was furious, and he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.
13 So the decree was issued that the wise men were to be killed, and men went looking for Daniel and his companions to kill them.
14 Then Daniel spoke with wisdom and tact to Arioch, commander of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.
15 He asked Arioch, the king's officer, "Why is the decree from the king so harsh?" Then Arioch explained the matter to Daniel.
16 Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, and he would reveal the interpretation to the king.
17 Then Daniel went home and explained the matter to his companions Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
18 urging them to ask the God of heaven for mercy concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions would not be destroyed along with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
20 Daniel said: "May the name of God be blessed from everlasting to everlasting, for wisdom and power belong to him.
21 He alters times and seasons; he deposes kings and sets kings up; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
22 He reveals things deep and hidden; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.
23 I thank and praise you, God of my fathers, for you have given me wisdom and power, and now you have told me what we asked of you; you have told us what the king asked."
24 So Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me in to the king, and I will reveal the interpretation to the king."
25 Arioch hurriedly took Daniel in to the king and said, "I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king the interpretation."
26 The king said to Daniel, who was called Belteshazzar, "Can you really tell me the dream I saw and its interpretation?"
27 Daniel replied to the king, "No wise men, enchanters, magicians or astrologers can reveal to the king the mystery he has asked about.
28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what is to happen in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions that passed through your head as you lay in bed:
29 As you lay in bed, O king, your thoughts turned to what was going to happen afterward, and the revealer of mysteries has shown you what is to happen.
30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have more wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that the king may be told the interpretation and that you may understand the thoughts of your heart.
31 "You were looking, O king, and there before you stood a huge statue. This statue, enormous and dazzling, stood in front of you, and it was frightening to look at.
32 The head of the statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
33 its legs of iron, and its feet part iron and part clay.
34 As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands; it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.
35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all smashed at once and became like chaff on threshing floors in summer; the wind swept them away so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 "That was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation.
37 You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory.
38 Wherever the sons of men live, he has placed in your hand the animals of the field and the birds of the sky, and made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 After you another kingdom will rise, lower than yours, and then a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule over the whole earth.
40 Then there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; just as iron smashes and shatters everything, and as iron crushes, so it will smash and crush all these.
41 And just as you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; yet some of the strength of iron will be in it, since you saw the iron mixed with soft clay.
42 As the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.
43 And as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not hold together, one with the other, just as iron does not mix with clay.
44 In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and its sovereignty will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it will stand forever,
45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain, not by human hands, and that it smashed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. The great God has shown the king what is to happen hereafter. The dream is true, and its interpretation can be trusted."
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell face down and bowed before Daniel, and he ordered that an offering and fragrant incense be presented to him.
47 The king said to Daniel, "Your God is truly the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery."
48 Then the king promoted Daniel, gave him many lavish gifts, made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and put him at the head of all the wise men of Babylon.
49 At Daniel's request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to administer the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the king's court.