The Babylonian Exile

and the king saith to them, `A dream I have dreamed, and moved is my spirit to know the dream.'

And the Chaldeans speak to the king in Aramaean, `O king, to the ages live, tell the dream to thy servants, and the interpretation we do shew.'

The king hath answered and said to the Chaldeans, `The thing from me is gone; if ye do not cause me to know the dream and its interpretation, pieces ye are made, and your houses are made dunghills;

and if the dream and its interpretation ye do shew, gifts, and fee, and great glory ye receive from before me, therefore the dream and its interpretation shew ye me.'

They have answered a second time, and are saying, `Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and the interpretation we do shew.

The king hath answered and said, `Of a truth I know that time ye are gaining, because that ye have seen that the thing is gone from me,

so that, if the dream ye do not cause me to know--one is your sentence, seeing a word lying and corrupt ye have prepared to speak before me, till that the time is changed, therefore the dream tell ye to me, then do I know that its interpretation ye do shew me.'

The Chaldeans have answered before the king, and are saying, `There is not a man on the earth who is able to shew the king's matter; therefore, no king, chief, and ruler, hath asked such a thing as this of any scribe, and enchanter, and Chaldean;

and the thing that the king is asking is precious, and others are there not that do shew it before the king, save the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.'

Therefore the king hath been angry and very wroth, and hath said to destroy all the wise men of Babylon;

And the sentence hath gone forth, and the wise men are being slain, and they have sought Daniel and his companions to be slain.

Then Daniel hath replied with counsel and discretion to Arioch chief of the executioners of the king, who hath gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon.

He hath answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, `Wherefore is the sentence so urgent from before the king?' Then Arioch hath made the thing known to Daniel,

and Daniel hath gone up, and sought of the king that he would give him time to shew the interpretation to the king.

Then Daniel to his house hath gone, and to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, he hath made the thing known,

and to seek mercies from before the God of the heavens concerning this secret, that they destroy not Daniel and his companions with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Then to Daniel, in a vision of the night, the secret hath been revealed. Then hath Daniel blessed the God of the heavens.

Daniel hath answered and said, `Let the name of God be blessed from age even unto age, for wisdom and might--for they are His.

And He is changing times and seasons, He is causing kings to pass away, and He is raising up kings; He is giving wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those possessing understanding.

He is revealing deep and hidden things; He hath known what is in darkness, and light with Him hath dwelt.

Thee, O God of my fathers, I am thanking and praising, for wisdom and might Thou hast given to me; and now, Thou hast caused me to know that which we have sought from Thee, for the king's matter Thou hast caused us to know.'

Therefore Daniel hath gone up unto Arioch, whom the king hath appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he hath gone, and thus hath said to him, `The wise men of Babylon thou dost not destroy, bring me up before the king, and the interpretation to the king I do shew.'

Then Arioch in haste hath brought up Daniel before the king, and thus hath said to him--`I have found a man of the sons of the Removed of Judah, who the interpretation to the king doth make known.'

The king hath answered and said to Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, `Art thou able to cause me to know the dream that I have seen, and its interpretation?'

Daniel hath answered before the king and said, `The secret that the king is asking, the wise men, the enchanters, the scribes, the soothsayers, are not able to shew to the king;