20. Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,for wisdom and might are His.
21. It is He who changes the times and the seasons;He removes kings and sets up kings;He gives wisdom to the wiseand knowledge to those who know understanding.
22. He reveals the deep and secret things;He knows what is in the darkness,and the light dwells with Him.
23. I thank and praise You, O God of my fathers;for You have given me wisdom and might,and have made known to me now what we asked of You,for You have made known to us the king’s matter.”
24. Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation.”
25. Then in haste Arioch brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah who can make known to the king the interpretation.”
26. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?”
27. Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot tell the king.
28. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and makes known to King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed are these:
29. “As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind upon your bed about what would come to pass hereafter, and He who reveals secrets makes known to you what shall come to pass.
30. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living man, but for the purpose of making known the interpretation to the king, and that you might understand the thoughts of your heart.
31. “You, O king, were watching, and there was a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you. And its form was awesome.
32. This image’s head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,
33. its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
34. You watched until a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image upon its feet, which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.
35. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36. “This was the dream. Now we will tell its interpretation before the king.
37. You, Oking, are the king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.