Previous - Next
Click here to show the links to concordance
chapter 2
1
In the
second year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, Nabuchodonosor had a dream, and his
spirit was terrified, and his dream went out of his mind.
2 Then the king commanded to call together the diviners
and the wise men, and the magicians, and the Chaldeans: to declare to the king
his dreams: so they came and stood before the king.
3 And the king said to them: I saw a dream: and being
troubled in mind I know not what I saw.
4 And the Chaldeans answered the king in Syriac: O
king, live for ever: tell to thy servants thy dream, and we will declare the
interpretation thereof.
5 And the king answering said to the Chaldeans: The
thing is gone out of my mind: unless you tell me the dream, and the meaning
thereof, you shall be put to death, and your houses shall be confiscated.
6 But if you tell the dream, and the meaning of it, you
shall receive of me rewards, and gifts, and great honour: therefore tell me the
dream, and the interpretation thereof.
7 They answered again and said: Let the king tell his
servants the dream, and we will declare the interpretation of it.
8 The king answered, and said: I know for certain that
you seek to gain time, since you know that the thing is gone from me.
9 If therefore you tell me not the dream, there is one sentence
concerning you, that you have also framed a lying interpretation, and full of
deceit, to speak before me till the time pass away. Tell me therefore the
dream, that I may know that you also give a true interpretation thereof.
10 Then the Chaldeains answered before the king, and
said: There is no man upon earth, that can accomplish thy word, O king, neither
doth any king, though great and mighty, ask such a thing of any diviner, or
wise man, or Chaldean.
11 For the thing that thou askest, O king, is
difficult; nor can any one be found that can shew it before the king, except
the gods, whose conversation is not with men.
12 Upon hearing this, the king in fury, and in great
wrath, commanded that all the wise men of Babylon should be put to death.
13 And the decree being gone forth, the wise men were
slain: and Daniel and his companions were sought for, to be put to death.
14 Then Daniel inquired concerning the law and the
sentence, of Arioch the general of the king's army, who was gone forth to kill
the wise men of Babylon.
15 And he asked him that had received the orders of the
king, why so cruel a sentence was gone forth from the face of the king. And
when Arioch had told the matter to Daniel,
16 Daniel went in and desired of the king, that he
would give him time to resolve the question and declare it to the king.
17 And he went into his house, and told the matter to
Ananias, and Misael, and Azarias his companions:
18 To the end that they should ask mercy at the face of
the God of heaven concerning this secret, and that Daniel and his companions
might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
19 Then was the mystery revealed to Daniel by a vision
in the night: and Daniel blessed the God of heaven,
20 And speaking he said: Blessed be the name of the
Lord from eternity and for evermore: for wisdom and fortitude are his.
21 And he changeth times and ages: taketh away kingdoms
and establisheth them, giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that
have understanding.
22 He revealeth deep and hidden things, and knoweth
what is in darkness: and light is with him.
23 To thee, O God of our fathers, I give thanks, and I
praise thee: because thou hast given me wisdom and strength: and now thou hast
shewn me what we desired of thee, for thou hast made known to us, the king's
discourse.
24 After this Daniel went in to Arioch, to whom the
king had given orders to destroy the wise men of Babylon, and he spoke thus to
him: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I
will tell the solution to the king.
25 Then Arioch in haste brought in Daniel to the king,
and said to him: I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Juda,
that will resolve the question to the king.
26 The king answered, and said to Daniel, whose name
was Baltassar: Thinkest thou indeed that thou canst tell me the dream that I
saw, and the interpretation thereof?
27 And Daniel made answer before the king, and said:
The secret that the king desireth to know, none of the wise men, or the
philosophers, or the diviners, or the soothsayers can declare to the king.
28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth
mysteries, who hath shewn to thee, O king Nabuchodonosor, what is to come to
pass in the latter times. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed,
are these:
29 Thou, O king, didst begin to think in thy bed, what
should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth mysteries shewed thee what
shall come to pass.
30 To me also this secret is revealed, not by any
wisdom that I have more than all men alive: but that the interpretation might
be made manifest to the king, and thou mightest know the thoughts of thy mind.
31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold there was as it
were a great statue: this statue, which was great and high, tall of stature,
stood before thee, and the look thereof was terrible.
32 The head of this statue was of fine gold, but the
breast and the arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass:
33 And the legs of iron, the feet part of iron and part
of clay.
34 Thus thou sawest, till a stone was cut out of a
mountain without hands: and it struck the statue upon the feet thereof that
were of iron and of clay, and broke them in pieces.
35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver,
and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of a summer's
thrashingfloor, and they were carried away by the wind: and there was no place
found for them: but the stone that struck the statue, became a great mountain,
and filled the whole earth.
36 This is the dream: we will also tell the
interpretation thereof before thee, O king.
37 Thou art a king of kings: and the God of heaven hath
given thee a kingdom, and strength, and power, and glory:
38 And all places wherein the children of men, and the
beasts of the field do dwell: he hath also given the birds of the air into thy
hand, and hath put all things under thy power: thou therefore art the head of
gold.
39 And after thee shall rise up another kingdom,
inferior to thee, of silver: and another third kingdom of brass, which shall
rule over all the world.
40 And the fourth kingdom shall be as iron. As iron
breaketh into pieces, and subdueth all things, so shall that break and destroy
all these.
41 Arid whereas thou sawest the feet, and the toes,
part of potter's clay, and part of iron: the kingdom shall be divided, but yet
it shall take its origin from the iron, according as thou sawest the iron mixed
with the miry clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and
part of clay, the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
43 And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
clay, they shall be mingled indeed together with the seed of man, but they
shall not stick fast one to another, as iron cannot be mixed with clay.
44 But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven
will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not
be delivered up to another people, and it shall break in pieces, and shall
consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever.
45 According as thou sawest that the stone was cut out
of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces, the clay, and the iron, and
the brass, and the silver, and the gold, the great God hath shewn the king what
shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is true, and the interpretation
thereof is faithful.
46 Then king Nabuchodonosor fell on his face, and
worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer in sacrifice to him
victims and incense.
47 And the king spoke to Daniel, and said: Verily your
God is the God of gods, and Lord of kings, and a revealer of hidden things:
seeing thou couldst discover this secret.
48 Then the king advanced Daniel to a high station, and
gave him many and great gifts: and he made him governor over all the provinces
of Babylon, and chief of the magistrates over all the wise men of Babylon.
49 And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed
Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago over the works of the province of Babylon: but
Daniel himself was in the king's palace.
Previous - Next
Table of Contents | Words: Alphabetical - Frequency - Inverse - Length - Statistics | Help | IntraText Library
Best viewed with any browser at 800x600 or 768x1024 on Tablet PC
IntraText® (V89) - Some rights reserved by EuloTech SRL - 1996-2007. Content in this page is licensed under a Creative Commons License