Nebuchadnezzar’s Second Dream
4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace.
5
I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and
1the visions of my head alarmed me.
6
So
2I made a decree that
3all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.
7
Then
4the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but
5they could not make known to me its interpretation.
8
At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named
6Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is
7the spirit of the holy gods—and I told him the dream, saying,
9
“O Belteshazzar,
8chief of the magicians, because I know that
9the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no
10mystery is too difficult for you, tell me
11the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation.
10
12The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and
13behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.
11
14The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.
12
15Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all.
16The beasts of the field found shade under it, and
17the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.
13
“I saw in
18the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold,
19a watcher,
20a holy one, came down from heaven.
14
He
21proclaimed aloud and said thus:
22‘Chop down the tree and
23lop off its branches,
24strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit.
25Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches.
15
But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth.
16
Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him;
26and let seven periods of time
27pass over him.
17
The sentence is by the decree of
28the watchers, the decision by the word of
29the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High
30rules the kingdom of men
31and gives it to whom he will and
32sets over it the lowliest of men. ’
18
This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O
33Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because
34all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for
35the spirit of the holy gods is in you. ”