Heaven Rules! — Part One

Nebuchadnezzar Praises God

¹1 King Nebuchadnezzar to all mpeoples, nations, and languages, nthat dwell in all the earth: oPeace be multiplied to you! ²It has seemed good to me to show the psigns and wonders that the qMost High God has done for me.

³How great are phis signs,

how mighty his pwonders!

rHis kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

rand his dominion endures from generation to generation.

Nebuchadnezzar's Second Dream

⁴2 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. ⁵I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and sthe visions of my head alarmed me. ⁶So tI made a decree that uall the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. ⁷Then vthe magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but wthey could not make known to me its interpretation. ⁸At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named xBelteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is ythe spirit of the holy gods3—and I told him the dream, saying, ⁹“O Belteshazzar, zchief of the magicians, because I know that ythe spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no amystery is too difficult for you, tell me sthe visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation. ¹⁰sThe visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and bbehold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. ¹¹cThe tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. ¹²dIts leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. eThe beasts of the field found shade under it, and ethe birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

¹³“I saw in sthe visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, fa watcher, ga holy one, came down from heaven. ¹⁴He hproclaimed aloud and said thus: i‘Chop down the tree and jlop off its branches, jstrip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. jLet the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. ¹⁵But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. ¹⁶Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; kand let seven periods of time lpass over him. ¹⁷The sentence is by the decree of fthe watchers, the decision by the word of gthe holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High mrules the kingdom of men nand gives it to whom he will and osets over it the lowliest of men.’ ¹⁸This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O pBelteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because qall the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for rthe spirit of the holy gods is in you.”