Daniel 2 — Legacy Standard Bible

Nebuchadnezzar’s Troubling Dream

2Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar ¹^,^ahad dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his ^bsleep ²left him. ²Then the king said to call in the ¹^,^amagicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers, and the ²Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. ³Then the king said to them, “I ¹^,^ahad a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.”

⁴Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in ¹^,^aAramaic: “^bO king, live forever! ^cSay the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” ⁵The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be ¹^,^atorn limb from limb, and your houses will be made a rubbish heap. ⁶“But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me ^agifts and a reward and great glory; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.” ⁷They answered a second time and said, “Let the king ^asay the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” ⁸The king answered and said, “I know for certain that you are buying time, inasmuch as you have seen that the word from me is firm, ⁹that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only ^aone law for you. Indeed, you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt ¹words before me until the time is changed; therefore say the dream to me, that I may ^bknow that you can declare to me its interpretation.” ¹⁰The Chaldeans answered ¹the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who is able to declare the matter ²for the king, inasmuch as no great king or powerful ruler has ever asked about a matter like this of any ³^,^amagician, conjurer, or Chaldean. ¹¹“Moreover, the matter which the king asks is ¹difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it ²to the king except ^agods, whose ^bdwelling place is not with flesh.”

¹²Because of this the king became ^aindignant and very furious and said for them to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. ¹³So the law went forth that the wise men were to be killed; and they sought out ^aDaniel and his friends to ¹kill them.

¹⁴Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to ^aArioch, the captain of the king’s ¹bodyguard, who had gone forth to kill the wise men of Babylon; ¹⁵he answered and said to Arioch, a powerful ¹official for the king, “For what reason is the law from the king so ²urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. ¹⁶So Daniel went in and sought from the king that he would ¹give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king.

God Reveals Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

¹⁷Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to his friends, to ^aHananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹⁸so that they might ^aseek compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be ^bdestroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁹Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night ^avision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven; ²⁰Daniel answered and said, “Let the name of God be ^ablessed forever and ever,For ^bwisdom and might belong to Him.

²¹“And He ^achanges the times and the seasons;He ^bremoves kings and ¹establishes kings;He gives ^cwisdom to wise menAnd knowledge to ²men of understanding.²²“He ^areveals the deep and hidden things;^bHe knows what is in the darkness,And the ^clight dwells with Him.²³“To You, O ^aGod of my fathers, I give thanks and praise,For You have given me ^bwisdom and might;Even now You have made known to me what we ^csought from You,For You have made known to us the king’s matter.”

²⁴Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus to him: “^aDo not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Bring me before the king, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.”

²⁵Then Arioch hurriedly ^abrought Daniel before the king and said thus to him: “I have found a man among the ¹^,^bexiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!” ²⁶The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was ^aBelteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?” ²⁷Daniel answered before the king and said, “As for the mystery about which the king is asking, neither ^awise men, conjurers, ¹magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. ²⁸“However, there is a ^aGod in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the ¹^,^blast days. This was your dream and the ^cvisions of your head while on your bed. ²⁹“As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts ¹turned to what would happen ²in the future; and ^aHe who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will happen. ³⁰“But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me by any ^awisdom which is in me more than in any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may know the ^bthoughts of your heart.

Daniel Interprets the Dream

³¹“You, O king, were looking, and behold, there was a single great ¹image; that image, which was large and ²of extraordinary splendor, was rising up in front of you, and its appearance was ³^,^aawesome. ³²“The ^ahead of that image was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, ³³its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴“You ¹continued looking until a ^astone was cut out ^bwithout hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and ^ccrushed them. ³⁵“Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed ¹all at the same time and became ^alike chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that ^bnot a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great ^cmountain and filled the whole earth.

³⁶“This was the dream; now we will say ^aits interpretation before the king. ³⁷“You, O king, are the ^aking of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the ¹kingdom, the ^bpower, the strength, and the glory; ³⁸and wherever the sons of men inhabit, or the ^abeasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has made you rule with power over them all. You are the head of gold. ³⁹“But after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule with power over all the earth. ⁴⁰“Then there will be a ^afourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. ⁴¹“Now in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron; it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with ¹common clay. ⁴²“And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. ⁴³“And in that you saw the iron mixed with ¹common clay; they will combine with one another ²in the seed of men; but they will not cling to one another, even as iron does not combine with clay. ⁴⁴“And in the days of those kings the ^aGod of heaven will ^bcause a ^ckingdom to rise up which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be ¹left for another people; it will ^dcrush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself stand forever. ⁴⁵“Inasmuch as you saw that a ^astone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the ^bgreat God has made known to the king what ^cwill happen ¹in the future; so the dream is certain, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

Daniel and Friends Promoted

⁴⁶Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did ^ahomage to Daniel and said for them to present to him an offering and ¹^,^bfragrant incense. ⁴⁷The king answered Daniel and said, “Truly ^ayour God is a ^bGod of gods and a Lord of kings and a ^crevealer of mysteries since you have been able to reveal this mystery.” ⁴⁸Then the king ¹^,^apromoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him rule with power over the whole ^bprovince of Babylon and chief ²prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. ⁴⁹And Daniel sought of the king, and he ^aappointed ^bShadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s ¹^,^ccourt.