Daniel 4:1-19 ▼

1 “Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples, nations, and languages, who are dwelling in all the earth: Your peace be great!

2 The signs and wonders that God Most High has done with me, it is good before me to show.

3 How great His signs! And how mighty His wonders! His kingdom [is] a continuous kingdom, and His rule [is] with generation and generation.

4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, have been at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace:

5 a dream I have seen, and it makes me afraid, and the conceptions on my bed, and the visions of my head, trouble me.

6 And by me a decree is made, to cause all the wise men of Babylon to come up before me, that the interpretation of the dream they may cause me to know.

7 Then coming up are the scribes, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, and the dream I have told before them, and its interpretation they are not making known to me.

8 And at last Daniel has come up before me, whose name [is] Belteshazzar—according to the name of my god—and in whom [is] the spirit of the holy gods, and the dream before him I have told:

9 O Belteshazzar, master of the scribes, as I have known that the spirit of the holy gods [is] in you, and no secret presses you, the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation, tell.

10 As for the visions of my head on my bed, I was looking, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height [is] great:

11 the tree has become great, indeed, strong, and its height reaches to the heavens, and its vision to the end of the whole land;

12 its leaves [are] beautiful, and its budding great, and food for all [is] in it: under it the beast of the field takes shade, and in its boughs dwell the birds of the heavens, and of it are all flesh fed.

13 I was looking, in the visions of my head on my bed, and behold, a sifter, even a holy one, from the heavens is coming down.

14 He is calling mightily, and thus has said, Cut down the tree, and cut off its branches, shake off its leaves, and scatter its budding, move away let the beast from under it, and the birds from off its branches;

15 but the stump of its roots leave in the earth, even with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and with the dew of the heavens is it wet, and with the beasts [is] his portion in the herb of the earth;

16 his heart from man’s is changed, and the heart of a beast is given to him, and seven times pass over him;

17 by the decree of the sifters [is] the sentence, and by the saying of the holy ones the requirement, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and to whom He wills He gives it, and the lowest of men He raises up over it.

18 This dream I have seen, I King Nebuchadnezzar; and you, O Belteshazzar, tell the interpretation, because that all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to cause me to know the interpretation, and you [are] able, for the spirit of the holy gods [is] in you.”

19 Then Daniel, whose name [is] Belteshazzar, has been astonished about one hour, and his thoughts trouble him; the king has answered and said, “O Belteshazzar, do not let the dream and its interpretation trouble you.” Belteshazzar has answered and said, “My lord, the dream—to those hating you, and its interpretation—to your enemies!