New American Standard Bible 1995

Daniel 2:5-13

5The king replied to the Chaldeans, “1The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be 2 3torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap. 6But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me 4gifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.” 7They answered a second time and said, “Let the king 5tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” 8The king replied, “I know for certain that you are 6bargaining for time, inasmuch as you have seen that 7the command from me is firm, 9that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only 8one 9decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt 10words before me until the 11situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may 12know that you can declare to me its interpretation.” 10The Chaldeans answered 13the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter 14for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any 15 16magician, conjurer or Chaldean. 11Moreover, the thing which the king demands is 17difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it 18to the king except 19gods, whose 20dwelling place is not with mortal flesh.”

12Because of this the king became 21indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. 13So the 22decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they looked for 23Daniel and his friends to 24kill them.

Read all of Daniel 2

Notes

1. Daniel 2:5 Another reading is The word has gone from me ↩
2. Daniel 2:5 Lit made into limbs ↩
3. Daniel 2:5 Ezra 6:11; Dan 2:12; 3:29 ↩
4. Daniel 2:6 Dan 2:48; 5:7, 16, 29 ↩
5. Daniel 2:7 Dan 2:4 ↩
6. Daniel 2:8 Lit buying ↩
7. Daniel 2:8 V 5, note 1 ↩
8. Daniel 2:9 Esth 4:11; Dan 3:15 ↩
9. Daniel 2:9 Or law ↩
10. Daniel 2:9 Lit word ↩
11. Daniel 2:9 Lit time ↩
12. Daniel 2:9 Is 41:23 ↩
13. Daniel 2:10 Lit before the ↩
14. Daniel 2:10 Lit of ↩
15. Daniel 2:10 Or soothsayer priest ↩
16. Daniel 2:10 Dan 2:2, 27 ↩
17. Daniel 2:11 Or rare ↩
18. Daniel 2:11 Lit before ↩
19. Daniel 2:11 Gen 41:39; Dan 5:11 ↩
20. Daniel 2:11 Ex 29:45; Is 57:15 ↩
21. Daniel 2:12 Ps 76:10; Dan 2:5; 3:13, 19 ↩
22. Daniel 2:13 Or law ↩
23. Daniel 2:13 Dan 1:19, 20 ↩
24. Daniel 2:13 Lit be killed ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Daniel 2