we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards.

O LORD, we have been humiliated ¹  – our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors – because we have sinned against you.

I have heard about you, how there is a spirit of the gods in you, and how you have ¹  insight, discernment, and extraordinary wisdom.

Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, ¹  even though we have rebelled against him.

“But you, his son ¹  Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, ²  although you knew all this.

O God of my fathers, I acknowledge and glorify you, for you have bestowed wisdom and power on me. Now you have enabled me to understand what I ¹  requested from you. For you have enabled me to understand the king’s dilemma.” ² 

My God sent his angel and closed the lions’ mouths so that they have not harmed me, because I was found to be innocent before him. Nor have I done any harm to you, O king.”

The king told them, “I have had a dream, ¹  and I ²  am anxious to understand the dream.”

He spoke with me, instructing me as follows: ¹  “Daniel, I have now come to impart understanding to you.

“All Israel has broken ¹  your law and turned away by not obeying you. ²  Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened ³  in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. ⁴ 

We have not obeyed ¹  the LORD our God by living according to ²  his laws ³  that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

But there are Jewish men whom you appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – and these men ¹  have not shown proper respect to you, O king. They don’t serve your gods and they don’t pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”

However, I have heard ¹  that you are able to provide interpretations and to decipher knotty problems. Now if you are able to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, you will wear purple and have a golden collar around your neck and be third ²  ruler in the kingdom.”

Now I have come to help you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to future days.”

“Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power ¹  and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day – we have sinned and behaved wickedly.

“You are righteous, ¹  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ²  – the people ³  of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you.

Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ¹  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ²  your very breath and all your ways!

He will have control over the hidden stores of gold and silver, as well as all the treasures of Egypt. Libyans and Ethiopians ¹  will submit to him. ² 

Then with smooth words he will defile ¹  those who have rejected ²  the covenant. But the people who are loyal to ³  their God will act valiantly. ⁴ 

If you don’t inform me of the dream, there is only one thing that is going to happen to you. ¹  For you have agreed among yourselves to report to me something false and deceitful ²  until such time as things might change. So tell me the dream, and I will have confidence ³  that you can disclose its interpretation.”