Then King Nebuchadnezzar was startled and quickly got up. He said to his ministers, “Wasn’t it three men that we tied up and threw ¹  into ²  the fire?” They replied to the king, “For sure, O king.”

So Daniel was brought in before the king. The king said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of the captives of Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah?

The wise men replied to the king: [What follows is in Aramaic ¹ ] “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will disclose its ²  interpretation.”

They again replied, “Let the king inform us ¹  of the dream; then we will disclose its ²  interpretation.”

Because of this the king got furiously angry ¹  and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

Then Nebuchadnezzar ¹  promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

King Belshazzar ¹  prepared a great banquet ²  for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of ³  them all. ⁴ 

Then King Belshazzar was very terrified, and he was visibly shaken. ¹  His nobles were completely dumbfounded.

As for you, O king, the most high God bestowed on your father Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, greatness, honor, and majesty. ¹ 

So King Darius issued the written interdict.

So they approached the king and said to him, ¹  “Did you not issue an edict to the effect that for the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human other than to you, O king, would be thrown into a den of lions?” The king replied, “That is correct, ²  according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.”

In the morning, at the earliest sign of daylight, the king got up and rushed to the lions’ den.

‘These large beasts, which are four in number, represent four kings who will arise from the earth.

What the king is asking is too difficult, and no one exists who can disclose it to the king, except for the gods – but they don’t live among mortals!” ¹ 

So Arioch quickly ushered Daniel into the king’s presence, saying to him, “I ¹  have found a man from the captives of Judah who can make known the interpretation to the king.”

The king replied to Daniel, “Certainly your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery!”

Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent out a summons to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, ¹  and all the other authorities of the province to attend the dedication of the statue that he ²  had erected.

At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ¹  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ²  The king was watching the back ³  of the hand that was writing.

Due to the noise ¹  caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother ²  then entered the banquet room. She ³  said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken!

There is a man in your kingdom who has within him a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, he proved to have ¹  insight, discernment, and wisdom like that ²  of the gods. ³  King Nebuchadnezzar your father appointed him chief of the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners. ⁴