Daniel 2

₁In the 2nd year after Nebuchadnezzar had become king, he had dreams. He woke up and became worried and he could not sleep again. ₂Then the king called all the magicians, the advisors, the fortune-tellers and the wise men to come to him so that they could tell him what he had dreamed. They all came and they stood in front of the king. ₃The king said to them: ‘I have dreamed and I am worried about what I have dreamed. I want to know what this dream means.’

₄The wise men talked in the Aramaic language and said to the king: ‘We hope the king will live forever. Tell us what you have dreamed and we will tell you what it means.’

₅But the king said to the wise men: ‘No, I have decided that you must tell me what I have dreamed and what it means. If you can not do it, then my men will kill you and cut you into pieces and break down your homes. ₆But if you tell me what I have dreamed and what it means, then I will give you a lot of gifts and you will become very important people. So now, tell me what I have dreamed and what it means.’

₇Again the wise men said: ‘Your_Majesty, you must first tell us what you have dreamed, then we will say what it means.’

₈Then the king told them: ‘I know what you want to do. You want to have some more time to think about what you must do. You know that I have already decided ₉what I am going to do with you if you can not tell me what I have dreamed. You want to talk to each other and think what you are going to tell me, something that is not_true. You hope that something will happen that will help you. Now tell me what I have dreamed, and then I will know you can also tell me what it means.’

₁₀The wise men said to the king: ‘There is no one in the world that can do what Your_Majesty wants. There is no other important king who has asked something like this of any advisor or fortune-teller or wise man. ₁₁Your_Majesty wants us to do something that we can not do. No one else can do it. Only the gods can do it and they do not live here with people on earth.’

₁₂The king then became very angry and he told his soldiers to kill all the wise men in Babylon. ₁₃When the king told the soldiers to kill all the wise men, they looked for Daniel and his friends and they also wanted to kill them. ₁₄Arioch was the leader of the soldiers who guarded the king and the king told him to kill all the wise men of Babylon. Arioch went to do it but then Daniel talked to him very wisely. ₁₅He asked Arioch: ‘Why did the king become angry and decide to kill wise men?’

Arioch told Daniel what had happened. ₁₆Then Daniel went to the king and asked the king to wait. He said he would tell the king what his dream meant.

₁₇Daniel went home and he told his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah what had happened. ₁₈He then prayed to the God who rules from heaven, and asked Him to be good to them and to tell him what the king had dreamed. Then the king's men would not kill Daniel and his friends with the other wise men of Babylon. ₁₉That night the God of heaven showed Daniel what the king had dreamed and Daniel praised God. ₂₀He said:

₂₄Then Daniel went to Arioch, the man who had to kill the wise men of Babylon. Daniel said to Arioch: ‘Don't kill the wise men of Babylon, but take me to the king. I will tell him what his dream means.’

₂₅Arioch quickly took Daniel to the king and he said to the king: ‘I have found a man who can tell you what your dream means. He is one of the prisoners who came from Judah.’ ₂₆The king said to Daniel: ‘Can you tell me what I have dreamed and what the dream means?’

Daniel's other name was Belteshazzar. ₂₇Daniel said to the king: ‘Your_Majesty, the wise men, the magicians, the fortune-tellers and the advisors can not tell you what you want to know. ₂₈But there is a God in heaven who can tell what people do not know. He has shown you, King Nebuchadnezzar, what will happen later. I will now tell you what you dreamed and what you saw when you were sleeping:

₂₉Your_Majesty, you were sleeping on your bed, thinking about what would happen later and the God who can tell what people do not know showed you what will happen. ₃₀I do not know more than other people, but God has shown me what other people do not know. He wants you to know what your dream means. You must understand the things that you were thinking about.

₃₁Your_Majesty, you looked and you saw a very big statue standing in front of you. The statue was shining very brightly and when you saw it, you became afraid. ₃₂Its head was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its stomach and hips of bronze, ₃₃its legs of iron and its feet of iron and clay. ₃₄You were looking at it when Someone cut a rock off the mountain. It was not a man who cut the rock. It was God. The rock came rolling to the statue and it hit the feet of iron and clay and it broke them into pieces. ₃₅The stone broke everything into very small pieces, the iron, clay, bronze, silver and gold. It all became as fine as the chaff of wheat on the threshing-floor in summer time. The wind came and it blew all the fine pieces of the statue away and no one has seen it again. But the rock that broke the statue into pieces became bigger and bigger, and later it covered the whole earth.

₃₆Your_Majesty, this is what you dreamed and we will now tell you what your dream means. ₃₇Your_Majesty, you are the head of gold. You are a king over other kings. The God who rules from heaven has made you king and you have become very strong and important. ₃₈He told you to rule over the people, animals and birds on earth.

₃₉After you, other kings will come. They will not be as important as you are. They will be like the silver. Then there will be other kings who will rule over the whole world, and they will be like the bronze. ₄₀The kings who will come after them will be as hard as iron, because iron breaks everything into pieces and makes it like dust.

₄₁You saw feet and toes of iron and clay. This means that those kings will rule over people who do not want to work together. ₄₂Sometimes they will be strong and sometimes they will be weak. ₄₃You saw that the iron and clay were together. That means the people of one nation will marry people from another nation, but they will not become one nation, because you can not mix iron and clay.

₄₄During the time when these kings rule, the Kingdom of God will come and God will rule forever. No one else will ever rule after Him. He will defeat all the other kings and they will never rule again, and the Kingdom of God will go on forever.

₄₅You also saw a piece of the rock breaking off from the big rock and it broke the iron into small pieces and made it like dust. You saw that the rock also broke the bronze, the clay, the silver and gold and it was not a man who broke off that piece of rock. It was God. Your_Majesty, the Great God has shown you what will happen later. This is what you dreamed and this is what your dream means, and this is true.’

₄₆Then King Nebuchadnezzar bowed low to the ground in front of Daniel and showed respect to him. The king told his people to bring a grain-offering and an incense-offering to Daniel. ₄₇The king said to Daniel: ‘Surely your God is stronger than all the other gods and all the kings. He told you things that no one else knows. That is why you could tell me what I had dreamed.’

₄₈The king then made Daniel a very important man and he gave Daniel a lot of gifts. He told Daniel to rule over the land of Babylon and to be the leader of all the wise men in Babylon. ₄₉Daniel asked the king to choose Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to help him rule over Babylon and the king did that. From that day Daniel stayed with the king in his palace.