In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was indignant and moved away from him. And the king ordered to convene the occultists, and the fortune-tellers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, so that they could tell the king his dreams. They came and stood before the king. And the king said to them:
“I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled; I want to know this dream.
And the Chaldeans said in Aramaic:
- King! Live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will explain its meaning.
The king answered and said to the Chaldeans:
- The Word has retreated from me; If you do not tell me the dream and its meaning, you will be cut into pieces, and your houses will turn into ruins. If you tell the dream and its meaning, you will receive gifts, rewards and great honor from me; so tell me the dream and its meaning.
They answered a second time and said:
“Let the king tell his slaves the dream, and we will explain its meaning.”
The king answered and said:
“I know for sure that you want to gain time, because you see that the word has retreated from me.” Since you do not tell me your dreams, you have one intention: you are going to tell me lies and deception while time passes; so tell me the dream, and then I will know that you can explain to me its meaning.
The Chaldeans answered the king and said:
“There is no person on earth who could reveal this matter to the king, and therefore not a single king, great and powerful, demanded this from any occultist, fortuneteller or Chaldean.” The matter that the king demands is so difficult that no one else can reveal it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with the flesh.
The king was enraged and very angry at this, and ordered to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
When this commandment came out to kill the wise men, they looked for Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then Daniel turned with advice and wisdom to Arioch, the commander of the king's bodyguard, who went out to kill the wise men of Babylon; and asked Arioch, the mighty man under the king:
- Why such a formidable command from the king?
Then Arioch told the whole matter to Daniel. And Daniel entered and begged the king to give him time, and he would present to the king the interpretation of the dream.
Daniel came to his house and told the matter to Hananiah, Mishael and Azarin, his comrades, so that they would ask mercy from the God of heaven about this secret, so that Daniel and his comrades would not perish with the other wise men of Babylon. And then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven. And Daniel said:
- Blessed be the name of the Lord from everlasting to everlasting! For with Him is wisdom and power; He changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings; gives wisdom to the wise and understanding to the understanding; He reveals the deep and hidden, He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him. I praise and magnify You, God of my fathers, that You have given me wisdom and strength and revealed to me what we prayed to You for; for You have revealed to us the king's work.
After this, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king ordered to kill the wise men of Babylon, and came and said to him:
- Do not kill the wise men of Babylon; Bring me to the king and I will reveal the meaning of the dream.
Then Arioch immediately brought Daniel to the king and said to him:
“I found from among the captive sons of Judah a man who could reveal to the king the meaning of the dream.
The king said to Daniel, who was named Belshazzar:
“Can you tell me the dream I had and its meaning?”
Daniel answered the king and said:
“The secret that the king is asking about cannot be revealed to the king by sages, charmers, occultists, or fortune-tellers. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets; and He revealed to King Nebuchadnezzar what would happen in the last days. Your dream and the visions of your head on your bed were as follows: you, O king, on your bed thought about what would happen after this, and the Revealer of secrets showed you what would happen. But this secret was revealed to me, not because I was wiser than all the living, but so that the king’s understanding might be revealed and so that you might know the thoughts of your heart. You, king, had such a vision: behold, some kind of large idol; This idol was huge, it stood before you in extreme splendor, and its appearance was terrible. This image had a head of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of copper, its legs of iron, its legs partly of iron and partly of clay. You saw him until the stone came off the mountain without the help of hands, struck the image, his iron and clay feet, and broke them. Then everything was crushed together: iron, clay, copper, silver and gold became like dust on the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, and no trace remained of them; and the stone that broke the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. What a dream! Let us tell the king its meaning. You are a king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven gave kingdom, power, strength and glory, and He gave all the sons of men, wherever they lived, the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air into your hands and made you ruler over them all. You are a head of gold! After you, another kingdom will arise, lower than yours, and another third kingdom, of copper, which will rule over the whole earth. And the fourth kingdom will be strong as iron; for just as iron breaks and crushes everything, so it, like all-crushing iron, will crush and crush. And because you saw the feet and toes partly made of pottery clay, and partly of iron, then there will be a divided kingdom, and some strength of iron will remain in it, just as you saw iron mixed with pottery clay. And just as the toes were partly made of iron and partly made of clay, so the kingdom will be strong and partly fragile. And that you saw iron mixed with pottery clay, this means that they will mix through human seed, but will not merge with one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kingdoms, the God of heaven will erect a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be transferred to another people; it will crush and destroy all kingdoms, but it itself will stand forever, since you saw that the stone was torn from the mountain not by hands and crushed iron, copper, clay, silver, and the Great God let the king know what would happen after this. And this dream is true, and its interpretation is accurate!
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and bowed to Daniel, and ordered gifts and fragrant incense to be brought to him. And the king said to Daniel:
“Truly your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings, the revealer of secrets, when you could reveal this secret!”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru