3. His signs are superb!His miracles so powerful!His kingdom is everlasting.His rule is for all time.
4. “While I, Nebuchadnezzar, was safe in my house, content in my palace,
5. I had a terrifying dream. My thoughts while I was lying in bed and the vision in my mind overwhelmed me.
6. I ordered all Babylon’s sages to come before me, so they might tell me the dream’s meaning.
7. So the dream interpreters, enchanters, Chaldeans, and diviners came. I told them the dream, but they couldn’t interpret it for me.
8. Daniel, who is called Belteshazzar after the name of my god, was the last to come before me. In him is the breath of the holy gods! I told Daniel the dream:
9. “Belteshazzar, chief of the dream interpreters, I know the breath of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you. Tell me the meaning of the visions I had in my dream.
10. In my mind, as I lay in bed, I saw a vision:At the center of the earth was a towering tree.
11. The tree grew in size and strength;it was as high as the sky;it could be seen from every corner of the earth.
12. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant;it had enough food for everyone.Wild animals took shade under it;birds nested in its branches.All living things lived off that tree.
13. “In my mind, as I lay in bed, I saw another vision: A holy watcher came down from heaven.
14. He proclaimed loudly:‘Cut down the tree and shear off its branches!Strip its leaves and scatter its fruit!The creatures should flee from its shelter;the birds should take flight from its branches.
15. But leave its deepest root in the earth,bound with iron and bronze in the field grass.Dew from heaven is to wash it,and it must live with the animals in the earth’s vegetation.
16. Its human mind is to be changed:it will be given the mind of an animal.Seven periods of time will pass over it.
17. This sentence is by the watchers’ decree;this decision is the holy ones’ wordso that all who live might knowthat the Most High dominates human kingship.The Most High gives kingship to anyone he wantsand sets over it the lowest of people.’