Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had commanded to kill the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, "Do not kill the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will tell him what his dream means."
Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel to the king and said to him, "I have found a man among the captives from Judah who will tell you what this dream means." The king said to Daniel (whose name was Belteshazzar), "Can you make known to me the dream which I have had and what it means?" Daniel answered, "The secret which the king asks is something that neither wise men, magicians, nor those who study the stars can make known to him; but there is a God in heaven who tells secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadrezzar what shall come in the future. Your dream and the visions which you had as you lay asleep are these: You, O king, had a vision and saw a great image. That image was large and it was exceedingly bright as it stood before you, and its appearance was terrible. The head of the image was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its body and its thighs of brass, its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part of clay. You looked at it until a stone was cut out, not by the hands of men, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold were all broken in pieces and became like the chaff which blows from the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carried them away so that nothing was left of them. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the earth.
"This is the dream, and we will tell the king what it means: O king, you are the king of kings to whom God has given the rule, the power, the strength, and the glory. Over the whole world he has given into your power, men, the wild beasts and the birds, and has made you rule over them all. You are the head of gold.
"After you shall rise another kingdom not so strong as you are, and a third kingdom of brass, which shall rule over the whole earth. A fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for iron breaks in pieces and shatters all things, and like iron which crushes, it shall break in pieces and crush all things. As you saw the feet and toes, part clay and part iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but there shall be in it some of the strength of the iron, for you saw the iron mixed with clay. As the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. You saw the iron mixed with clay, for the rulers will marry one another, but they will not stick together, even as iron does not stick to clay.
"During the reigns of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the power be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and destroy all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. This is shown by the fact that you saw a stone cut out of the mountain, but not with the hands of men. And it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold.
"The great God has made known to the king what is to come, and the dream is real and this meaning true."
Then King Nebuchadrezzar fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel, and ordered that a sacrifice and sweet odors should be offered to him. The king also said to Daniel, "Your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings, and one who tells his secrets to his servant, for you have been able to tell this great secret." Then the king gave Daniel a high position and many costly gifts, and made him ruler over all of Babylon and chief over all the wise men in Babylon. And at Daniel's request the king placed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in charge of the province of Babylon; but Daniel stayed in the king's court.
THE TEST BY FIRE
Nebuchadrezzar, the king, made an image of gold ninety feet high and nine feet wide. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then he sent for the officers, the governors, the judges, the treasurers, and all the rulers of the provinces. So they all came together and stood before the image that Nebuchadrezzar had set up.
Then the herald cried aloud, "To you it is commanded, O peoples, nations: 'The moment you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lute, harp, bagpipe, and all kinds of musical instruments, you shall fall down and worship the golden image. Whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into a burning, fiery furnace.'" So when all the people heard the sound of the trumpet, flute, lute, harp, bagpipe, and all kinds of musical instruments, all the peoples, nations, and races fell down and worshipped the golden image that King Nebuchadrezzar had set up.