¹And in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was disturbed, and his sleep eluded him. ²And the king summoned the magi and the enchanters and the magicians and the Chaldeans to give the king the interpretation of his dreams, and they came and stood before the king. ³And the king said to them, “I have had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the meaning of the dream.” ⁴And the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live age-abidingly. Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.” ⁵The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The matter escapes me. If you do not make the dream and its interpretation known to me, you will be dismembered and your houses will be made a dunghill. ⁶But if you expound the dream and its interpretation, you will receive gifts and a reward and great honour from me. So expound the dream and its interpretation to me.” ⁷They answered again and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will expound the interpretation.” ⁸The king replied and said, “I definitely know that you are buying time, because you see that the matter escapes me, ⁹so if you do not make the dream known to me, then the judgment against you is conclusive, and you have conspired in speaking false and fabricated words to me, biding your time. Otherwise, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can explain its interpretation.” ¹⁰The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There does not exist a man on dry land who can expound the king's matter, and for this reason no great king or ruler has ever asked any magus or enchanter or Chaldean a question like this. ¹¹And the matter which the king is asking is difficult, and there is no-one else who can expound it to the king, except the gods, whose abode is not with flesh.” ¹²On account of this, the king became enraged and very angry, and he gave an order to execute all the wise men of Babylon. ¹³And the decree went out, and the wise men started to be killed. And they searched for Daniel and his colleagues for them to be killed. ¹⁴Then Daniel responded with caution and discernment to Arioch the king's chief executioner, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁵He answered and said to Arioch the king's commissioner, “Why is the decree from the king so urgent?” Then Arioch informed Daniel of the matter. ¹⁶And Daniel went in and requested from the king that he give him time, so that he could expound the interpretation to the king. ¹⁷Then Daniel went to his house and informed Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah his colleagues about the matter, ¹⁸and to ask for mercy from the God of heaven about this secret, so that Daniel and his colleagues should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁹Then in a vision of the night the secret was revealed to Daniel, whereupon Daniel blessed the God of heaven. ²⁰Daniel responded and said,

“Blessed be the name of God from age to age,

Because wisdom and might are his.

²¹And he changes seasons and times;

He removes kings, and he establishes kings.

He gives wisdom to the wise

And knowledge to those who have understanding.

²²He reveals deep things and hidden things;

He knows what is in darkness,

But with him dwells light.

²³You, O God of my fathers,

I celebrate and praise,

For you have given me wisdom and power,

And now you have made known to me

What we requested from you,

For you have made the king's subject matter known to us.”

²⁴On account of this, Daniel went into the presence of Arioch, whom the king had appointed for the execution of the wise men of Babylon. He went and said this to him: “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Bring me into the presence of the king, and I will expound the interpretation to the king.” ²⁵At this Arioch brought Daniel hastily into the presence of the king, and he said this to him: “I have found a man among the deportees of Judah who will make the interpretation known to the king.” ²⁶The king responded and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Is it true that you are able to make known to me the dream which I saw, and its interpretation?” ²⁷Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, “Are not the wise men and enchanters and magi and diviners able to expound to the king the secret which the king is asking about? ²⁸But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and who has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. Your dream and the visions in your head on your bed are as follows. ²⁹As for you, O king, there arose in your cogitations on your bed what will take place after this, and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will take place. ³⁰And as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me by there being more wisdom in me than in anyone living, but to the intent that the interpretation should be made known to the king, and that you should know the cogitations of your heart. ³¹You, O king, were having a vision, and you beheld a great image. That image was large, and its splendour was prodigious, standing in front of you, and its appearance was fearful. ³²The image was like this: its head was of good quality gold, its breast and its arms were of silver, its midriff and its thighs were of copper, ³³its legs were of iron; its feet were partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴You were having the vision until a stone was cut out, which was not done with hands, and which struck the image on the feet of iron and clay and shattered them. ³⁵Then the iron and the clay, copper, silver and gold were shattered together, and they became like chaff from the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them, but the stone which struck the image became a great mountain, and it filled the whole earth. ³⁶That was the dream, and we will give its interpretation in the presence of the king. ³⁷You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven gave the kingdom, the power, and the authority and the honour. ³⁸And everywhere where the sons of man, wild animals and the birds of the sky dwell, he has delivered them all into your hand and given you power over them all. The head of gold represents you. ³⁹And after you, another kingdom, inferior to yours, will arise, and a third kingdom – another one – which will be of copper, which will rule over all the earth. ⁴⁰And a fourth kingdom: it will be as strong as iron, for iron shatters and smashes everything, and as iron which crushes all these, so it will shatter and break. ⁴¹And as regards the fact that you saw the feet and the toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom, and there will be some of the firmness of iron in it, inasmuch as you saw iron mixed with clay earthenware. ⁴²And as for the toes, partly of iron and partly of clay, part of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be fragile. ⁴³And as regards the fact that you saw iron mixed with clay earthenware, they will be mixed in with the seed of mankind, but they will not stick to each other, just as iron does not blend with clay. ⁴⁴And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up an age-abiding kingdom which will not be destroyed, nor will the kingdom be left to another people. It will shatter and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it will stand age-abidingly. ⁴⁵In view of the fact that you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain, which was not done with hands, and it shattered the iron, the copper, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place after the present time. Now the dream is certain, and its interpretation is trustworthy.” ⁴⁶At this King Nebuchadnezzar fell face down, and he prostrated himself to Daniel, and he said he would pour out a meal-offering and fragrances to him. ⁴⁷The king responded to Daniel and said, “It is true that your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, in that you were able to reveal this secret.” ⁴⁸Then the king exalted Daniel, and he gave him many great gifts, and he put him in charge of the whole province of Babylon, and he made him the administrator over all the wise men of Babylon. ⁴⁹And Daniel made requests to the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego over the administration of the province of Babylon. And Daniel was in the king's royal court.

Reference(s) in Chapter 2: v.35 ↔ Revelation 12:8.