So a decree went out, and the wise men were about to be executed. They also sought Daniel and his friends so that they could be executed.

Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were broken in pieces without distinction and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors that the wind carries away. Not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a large mountain that filled the entire earth.

So I issued an order for all the wise men of Babylon to be brought before me so that they could make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

The tree grew large and strong. Its top reached far into the sky; it could be seen from the borders of all the land.

The tree that you saw that grew large and strong, whose top reached to the sky, and which could be seen in all the land,

While under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels -- the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father had confiscated from the temple in Jerusalem -- so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them.

The king called out loudly to summon the astrologers, wise men, and diviners. The king proclaimed to the wise men of Babylon that anyone who could read this inscription and disclose its interpretation would be clothed in purple and have a golden collar placed on his neck and be third ruler in the kingdom.

Then a stone was brought and placed over the opening to the den. The king sealed it with his signet ring and with those of his nobles so that nothing could be changed with regard to Daniel.

I saw that the ram was butting westward, northward, and southward. No animal was able to stand before it, and there was none who could deliver from its power. It did as it pleased and acted arrogantly.

I saw it approaching the ram. It went into a fit of rage against the ram and struck it and broke off its two horns. The ram had no ability to resist it. The goat hurled the ram to the ground and trampled it. No one could deliver the ram from its power.