1. IN the first yeare of Baltassar the king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dreame: & the vision of his head in his bed: and writing the dreame, he comprehended it in a short speach: and in summe comprising it, he said:
2. I saw in my vision by night, and behold the foure windes of heauen fought in the great sea.
3. And foure great beasts came vp, out of the sea diuerse one from an other.
4. The first as it were a lyonesse, & she had the wings of an eagle: I beheld til her wringes were plucked of, and she was lifted vp from the earth, & she stood vpon the fete as a man, & the hart of a man was geuen to her.
5. And behold an other beast like a beare stood a side: and there were three rewes in the mouth therof, and in the teeth therof, & thus they said to it: Arise, eate very much flesh.
6. After this I beheld, and loe an other as it were a leopard, and it had winges as of a bird, foure vpon it, & there were foure heades in the beast, and powre was geuen to it.
7. After this I beheld in the vision of the night, and loe a fourth beast terrible and meruelous, and strong excedingly, it had great yron teeth, eating and breaking, and treading the rest with her fete: and it was vnlike to the other beasts, which I had sene before it, and it had tenne hornes.
8. I considered the hornes, and behold an other litle horne sprang out of the middes of them: and three of the first hornes were plucked of at the presence therof, and loe eyes as it were the eyes of a man were in this horne, & a mouth speaking great wordes.
9. I beheld til thrones were set, and the ancient of dayes sate: his vesture white as snow, and the heares of his head as cleane wool: his throne flames of fire: his wheeles fire kindled.
10. A fire & swieft streame came forth from his face thousandes of thousands ministred to him, & tenne thousand hundred thousands assisted him: iudgement sate, and the bookes were opened.
11. I beheld because of the voice of the great wordes, which that horne spake: and I saw that the beast was slaine, and the bodie therof was perished, and was committed to the fyre to be burnt.
12. The power of the other beasts also was taken away: and times of life were appointed them vntil time, and time.
13. I beheld therfore in the vision of the night, and loe with the clowdes of heauen there came in, as it were the sonne of man, and he came euen to the ancient of dayes: and in his sight they offered him.
14. And he gaue him powre, and honour, and kingdom: and al peoples, tribes, & tongues shal serue him: his powre, an eternal power, that shal not be taken away: and his kingdom, that shal not be corrupted.
15. My spirit trembled, I Daniel was made sore afrayd at these thinges, and the visions of my head trubled me.
16. I came to one of the assistants, and I asked the truth of him concerning al these thinges, who told me the interpretation of the wordes, and taught me:
17. These foure great beasts, are foure kingdoms, which shal rise vp out of the earth.
18. And they shal take the kingdom of the holie God most high: & they shal obteine the kingdom euen to world, & world of worldes.
19. After this I would diligently lerne of the fourth beast, which was very vnlike from al, and exceding terrible: his teeth and clawes of yron: he did eate, and breake in peeces, & the rest he stamped with his feete:
20. and of the tenne hornes that he had on his head: and of the other, that had growen vp, before which the three hornes fel: and of that horne, that had eyes, and the mouth speaking great wordes, and was greater then the rest.
21. I beheld, and loe that horne made warre agaynst the saints, and preuailed ouer them,
22. til the ancient of dayes came, & gaue iudgement to the saintes on High, and the time came, and the saintes obteyned the kingdom.
23. And thus he sayd: The fourth beast shal be the fourth kingdom in the earth, which shal be greater then al the kingdoms, and shal deuoure the whole earth, and shal conculcate, and breake it in peeces.
24. Moreouer the tenne hornes of that same kingdom, shal be tenne kinges: and an other shal rise vp after them, and he shal be mightier then the former, and he shal bring downe three kinges.
25. And he shal speake wordes agaynst the High one, and shal destroy the saintes of the Highest: and he shal thinke that he can change times, & lawes, and they shal be deliuered into his hand euen to a time, & times, & half a time.
26. And iudgement shal sitte, that might may be taken away, and be broken, and perish euen to the end.
27. And kingdom, and power, and the greatnes of the kingdom, that is vnder al the heauen, be geuen to the people of the saintes of the Highest: whose kingdom is an euerlasting kingdom, and al kinges shal serue him, and shal obey him.
28. Hitherto the end of the word, I Daniel was much trubled with my cogitations, and my face was changed in me: but the word I kept in my hart.