hebrew · religious

The Book of Daniel

c. 167–164 BCE (apocalyptic sections); older court tales · Hellenistic Period · Jerusalem (under Antiochus IV Epiphanes)

Chapter 2 — Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

1And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,
2Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled,
3And his sleep brake from him.
4And the king said: I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.
5Then Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said:
6The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers,
7The magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;
8But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets,
9And maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.
10Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image.
11This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee;
12And the form thereof was terrible.
13This image's head was of fine gold,
14His breast and his arms of silver,
15His belly and his thighs of brass,
16His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
17Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands,
18Which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay,
19And brake them to pieces.
20Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together,
21And became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors;
22And the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them:
23And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Chapter 3 — The Fiery Furnace

24Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits,
25And the breadth thereof six cubits:
26He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
27Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said:
28Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
29Do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
30Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
31Sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made;
32Well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst
33Of a burning fiery furnace.
34Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king,
35O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
36If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,
37And he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
38But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods.

Chapter 7 — The Vision of the Four Beasts

39Daniel spake and said: I saw in my vision by night,
40And, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
41And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
42The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings.
43And another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side,
44And it had three ribs in the mouth of it.
45After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard,
46Which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl.
47After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast,
48Dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly;
49And it had great iron teeth.
50I beheld till the thrones were cast down,
51And the Ancient of days did sit,
52Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool:
53His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
54A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him:
55Thousand thousands ministered unto him,
56And ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him:
57The judgement was set, and the books were opened.
58I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man
59Came with the clouds of heaven,
60And came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
61And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,
62That all people, nations, and languages, should serve him:
63His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,
64And his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

notes

The Book of Daniel is the primary apocalyptic text of the Hebrew Bible. It consists of two distinct parts: court tales (chapters 1–6) set in the Babylonian court of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, featuring Daniel and his companions — the lion's den, the fiery furnace, the writing on the wall; and apocalyptic visions (chapters 7–12) depicting the succession of world empires as beasts, the judgement of the Ancient of Days, and the resurrection of the dead. Modern scholarship dates the apocalyptic section to approximately 167–164 BCE, during the persecution of Jews by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes — making it one of the latest books in the Hebrew Bible. The "Son of Man" figure who comes on the clouds of heaven in chapter 7 is the most significant messianic image in Daniel; Jesus consistently used "Son of Man" as his self-designation, drawing on this passage. The four-empire sequence (gold, silver, bronze, iron) became a foundational framework for historical periodisation in Western thought, reinterpreted by Hesiod (the Five Ages), by Rome (the Iron Age), and by medieval historians. Translation from the King James Version (1611). Public domain.

currently held: Manuscript tradition (Dead Sea Scrolls)

ApocalypticFateHebrew BibleSon of ManDivine Council

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