1. IN the second yeare of the kingdom of Nabuchodonosor, Nabuchodonosor saw a dreame, and his spirit was terrified, and his dreame was fled from him.
2. But the king commanded, that the southsayers should be called together, and the magicians, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldees: to declare vnto the king his dreames: who when they were come, stood before the king.
3. And the king sayd to them: I saw a dreame: & being confounded in minde I know not what I saw.
4. And the Chaldees answered the king in Syriach, King for euer live: tel the dreame to thy seruants, and we wil declare the interpretation therof.
5. And the king answering sayd to the Chaldees. The word is departed from me: vnles you tel me the dreame, and the coniecture therof, you shal perish, and your houses shal be confiscate.
6. But if you tel the dreame, & gifts, and much honour: the dreame therfore, and the interpretation therof tel you me.
7. They answered the second time, & sayd: Let the king tel his seruants the dreame, & we wil declare the interpretation therof.
8. The king answered, & sayd: Surely I know that you redeme time, knowing that the word is departed from me.
9. If therfore you shew me not the dreame, there is one sentence of you, that you haue also framed a guilful interpretation, and ful of deceite, to speake vnto me til the time passe away. Tel me therfore the dreame, that I may know that you speake a true interpretation also therof.
10. The Chaldees therfore answering before the king, sayd: There is no man vpon the earth, that can accomplish thy word, o king, yea neither anie king great and mighty, demandeth such a word of anie southsayer, & magician, and Chaldee.
11. For the word that thou askest, o king, is weightie: neither shal there be found any, that can shew it in sight of the king, except the goddes, whose conuersation is not with men.
12. Which thing being heard, the king in furie, and in great wrath commanded that al the wisemen of Babylon should perish.
13. And the sentence being gone forth, wisemen were slaine: & Daniel and his felowes were soughth for, to perish.
14. Then Daniel inquired concerning the law, and the sentence, of Arioch the prince of the kings warfar, who was gone forth to kil the wisemen of Babylon.
15. And he asked him, that had receiued the powre of the king, for what cause so cruel a sentence was gone forth from the face of the king. When Arioch therfore had shewed the matter to Daniel,
16. Daniel going in desired the king, that he would geue him a time to tel the solution to the king.
17. And he went into his house, and he told the matter vnto Ananias, & Misael, & Azarias his felowes:
18. that they should aske mercie at the face of the God of heauen vpon this sacrament, & Daniel and his felowes might not perish, with the rest of the wisemen of Babylon.
19. Then was the mysterie reueled to Daniel by a vision in the night: and Daniel blessed the God of heauen,
20. and speaking sayd: The name of our Lord be blessed from euerlasting & for euer more: because wisedom and strength are his.
21. And he changeth times, and ages: transporteth kingdoms & establisheth them: geueth wisedom to the wise, and knowledge to them that vnderstand discipline:
22. he reueleth profound, & hidden thinges, and knoweth the thinges that are done in darkenes: and light is with him.
23. To thee o God of our fathers I confesse, and I prayse thee: Because thou hast geuen me wisedom, & strength: and now thou hast shewed me the thinges that we desired of thee, because the kings word thou hast opened to vs.
24. After these thinges Daniel being entered in to Arioch, whom the king had appoynted to destroy the wisemen of Babylon, spake thus vnto him: Destroy not the wisemen of Babylon: bring me in before the presence of the king, & I wil tel the solution to the king.
25. Then Arioch in hast brought in Daniel to the king, and said to him: I haue found a man of the children of the transmigration of Iuda, that can tel the solution to the king.
26. The king answered, and said to Daniel, whose name was Baltassar: Thinkest thou in very dede thou canst tel me the dreame, that I saw, and the interpretation therof?
27. And Daniel answering before the king, sayd: The mysterie, that the king demandeth, the wisemen, the Magicians, and the southsayers, and the inchanters can not declare vnto the king.
28. But there is a God in heauen that reueleth mysteries, who hath shewed vnto thee, king Nabuchodonosor, what thinges are to come in the later times. Thy dreame, and the visions of thy head in thy bed, are these.
29. Thou o king beganst to thinke in thy bed, what should be hereafter: and he that reueleth mysteries, shewed thee what thinges are to come.
30. To me also not in the wisedom, that is in me more then in al men aliue, is this sacrament reueled: but that the interpretation might be made manifest to the king, and thou mightest know the cogitations of thy minde.
31. Thou o king didst see, and behold as it were one great statua: that statua, great and high of stature stood ouer against thee, and the sight therof was terrible.
32. The head of this statua was of the best gold, but the breast and the armes of siluer, moreouer the bellie, and the thighes of brasse:
33. and the legges of yron, of the feete a certaine part was of yron, and a certaine of earth.
34. Thou sawest so, til a stone was cut out of a mountaine without handes: and it stoke the statua on the yron, & earthen feet therof, & brake them in peeces.
35. Then were the yron, the clay, the brasse, the siuer, and gold broken together, and brought as it were into the fust of a summers floore, that are taken violently with the winde: and there was no place found for them: but the stone that stroke the statua, was made a great mountaine, and it filled al the earth.
36. This is the dreame: the interpretation also therof we wil tel before thee, o king.
37. Thou art the king of kings: and the God of heauen hath geuen thee kingdom, and strength, and empire, and glorie:
38. and al thinges, wherin the children of men, and the beasts of the filde doe inhabite, the foules also of the heauen he hath geuen in thy hand, and vnder thy dominion he hath appoynted al thinges: thou therfore art the golden head.
39. And after thee shal ryse vp an other kingdom lesse then thou of siluer: and an other third kingdom of brasse, which shal rule ouer al the world.
40. And the fourth kingdom shal be as it were yron. As yron breaketh into peece, & tameth al thinges, so shal that breake, and destroy al these.
41. Moreouer because thou sawest part of the feete, and of the toes of the potters clay, and part of yron: the kingdom shal be diuided, which notwithstanding shal rise of the ground of yron, according as thou sawest the yron mingled with the earth of clay.
42. And the toes in part of yron, and in part of earth: in part the kingdom shal be whole, and in part broken.
43. And that thou sawest the yron mingled with the earth of clay, they shal be mingled in dede together with mans seede, but they shal not sticke fast one to an other, as yron can not be mingled with earth.
44. But in the dayes of those kingdoms the God of Heauen wil rayse vp a kingdom, that shal not be dissipated for euer, and his kingdom shal not be deliuered to an other people: and it shal breake in peeces, and shal consume al these kingdoms: and itself shal stand for euer.
45. According as thou sawest, that the stone was cut out of the mountaine without handes, and brake the earth in peeces, and the yron, and the brasse, and the siluer, and the gold, the great God hath shewed the king what thinges are to come hereafter. & the dreame is true, & the interpretation therof faithful.
46. Then king Nobuchodonosor fel on his face, & adored Daniel, & commanded to sacrifice to him hostes & incense.
47. The king therfore speaking said to Daniel: In very dede your God is the God of goddes, and Lord of kinges, and he that reueleth mysteries: because thou couldst open this sacrament.
48. Then the king aduanced Daniel on high, & he gaue him manie giftes, and great: and he made him prince ouer al the prouinces of Babylon: and chiefe of the magistrates, ouer al the wisemen of Babylon.
49. And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed ouer the workes of the prouince of Babylon, Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago: but Daniel was in the doores of the king.