1. Nebuchadnezzar the king,to all peoples, nations, and languages, who dwell in all the earth:Peace be multiplied to you.
2. I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.
3. How great are His signs,and how mighty are His wonders!His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,and His dominion is from generation to generation.
4. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace.
5. I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.
6. Therefore I made a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.
7. Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known to me its interpretation.
8. But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar according to the name of my god and in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God, and before him I told the dream, saying,
9. “Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you and no secret troubles you, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation.
10. Now these were the visions of my mind while on my bed: I saw a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.
11. The tree grew and became strong, and its height reached heaven, and it was visible to the end of all the earth.
12. Its leaves were fair, and its fruit much, and in it was food for all. The animals of the field had shadow under it, and the fowl of the heavens lived in its boughs, and all flesh was fed of it.
13. “I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and there was a holy watcher coming down from heaven.
14. He cried aloud and said thus: ‘Hew down the tree and cut off its branches, shake off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals get away from under it, and the fowl from its branches.
15. Nevertheless leave the stump of its roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field.“ ‘And let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let its portion be with the animals in the grass of the earth.
16. Let its heart be changed from that of a man, let him be given the heart of an animal. And let seven periods of time pass over it.
17. “ ‘This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He wills and sets up over it the basest of men.’
18. “This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, tell its interpretation to me, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation. But you are able, for the Spirit of the Holy God is in you.”