Study Desk

The man measured about one-third of a mile again, but it was now a river that I could not cross. The water had risen too high; it was deep enough for swimming; it was a river that no one could cross.

But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.

"The rest of the area will be about one and one-half miles wide and seven miles long. It will not be holy but will belong to the city and be used for homes and pastures. The city will be in the middle of it.

but Ashpenaz said to Daniel, "I am afraid of my master, the king. He ordered me to give you this food and drink. If you begin to look worse than other young men your age, the king will see this. Then he will cut off my head because of you."

Daniel said to the guard, "Please give us this test for ten days: Don't give us anything but vegetables to eat and water to drink.

But if you tell me my dream and its meaning, I will reward you with gifts and great honor. So tell me the dream and what it means."

the king is asking something that is too hard. Only the gods could tell the king this, but the gods do not live among people."

Arioch, the commander of the king's guards, was going to kill the wise men of Babylon. But Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and skill,

But there is a God in heaven who explains secret things, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen at a later time. This is your dream, the vision you saw while lying on your bed:

God also told this secret to me, not because I have greater wisdom than any other living person, but so that you may know what it means. In that way you will understand what went through your mind.

While you were looking at the statue, you saw a rock cut free, but no human being touched the rock. It hit the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.

"Another kingdom will come after you, but it will not be as great as yours. Next a third kingdom, the bronze part, will rule over the earth.

You saw the iron mixed with clay, but iron and clay do not hold together. In the same way the people of the fourth kingdom will be a mixture, but they will not be united as one people.

"During the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up another kingdom that will never be destroyed or given to another group of people. This kingdom will crush all the other kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will continue forever.

"King Nebuchadnezzar, you saw a rock cut from a mountain, but no human being touched it. The rock broke the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold to pieces. In this way the great God showed you what will happen. The dream is true, and you can trust this explanation."

In a moment you will again hear the sound of the horns, flutes, lyres, zithers, harps, pipes, and all the other musical instruments. If you bow down and worship the statue I made, that will be good. But if you do not worship it, you will immediately be thrown into the blazing furnace. What god will be able to save you from my power then?"

But even if God does not save us, we want you, O king, to know this: We will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up."

but I had a dream that made me afraid. As I was lying on my bed, I saw pictures and visions in my mind that alarmed me.

The fortune-tellers, magicians, and wise men came, and I told them about the dream. But they could not tell me what it meant.

But leave the stump and its roots in the ground with a band of iron and bronze around it; let it stay in the field with the grass around it. "‘Let the man become wet with dew, and let him live among the animals and plants of the earth.