Daniel 4:1-21 ▼

1 Nabuchodonosor kynge, vnto all people, kynreddes and tunges that dwell vpon the whole earth: peace be multiplied amoge you

2 I thought it good to shewe the tokes & maruelous workes, yt ye hye God hath wrought vpon me.

3 O how greate are his tokes, & how mightie are his wonders? His kyngdome is an euerlastinge kyngdome, and his power lasteth for euer and euer.

4 I Nabuchodonosor beynge at rest in myne house, ad florishinge in my palace,

5 sawe a dreame, which made me afrayed: ad thoughtes that I had vpo my bed, with the visions of myne heade, troubled me.

6 Then sent I out a commission, that all they which were of wisdome at Babilo shulde be brought before me, to tell me the interpretacion of the dreame.

7 So there came the soythsayers, charmers, Caldees and coniurers of deuels: to whom I tolde the dreame, but what it betokened, they coude not shewe me:

8 till at the last, there came one Daniel (otherwyse called Balthasar, acordinge to the name of my God) which hath the sprete of the holy goddes in him: to whom I tolde the dreame, sayenge:

9 O Balthasar, thou prynce of saythsayers: For so moch as I knowe, that thou hast the sprete of the holy goddes, and no secrete is hyd from the: tel me therfore, what ye visio of my dreame (yt I haue sene) maye signifie.

10 I sawe a vision in my heade vpon my bed: and beholde, there stode a tre vpon the grounde,

11 which was very hye, greate and mightie: ye heyth reached vnto the heaue, and the bredth extended to all the endes of the earth:

12 his leaues were fayre, he had very moch frute, so yt euery ma had ynough to eate therin. The beastes of the felde had shadowes vnder it, and the foules off the ayre dwelt in the bowes therof. Shortly, all creatures fed of it.

13 I sawe in my heade a vision vpon my bed: & beholde, a watcher (eue an holy angel) came downe from heauen,

14 and cryed mightely, sayenge: Hew downe the tre, breake off his braunches, shake of his leaues, and scatre his frute abrode: that all the beestes maye get them awaye from vnder him, and the foules from his braunches.

15 Neuertheles leaue the grounde of his rote still in the earth, and bynde him vpon the playne felde, with cheynes of yron and stele. With the dew of heauen shall he be wet, and he shall haue his parte in the herbes of the grounde with other wylde beastes.

16 That mans herte off his shall be taken from him, and a beastes herte shall be geuen him, till seuen yeares be come and gone vpon him.

17 This erande of the watcher, is a comaundemet grounded and sought out in the councel off him, that is most holy: to lerne men for to vnderstonde, that the hyest hath power ouer the kyngdomes off men, ad geueth them, to whom it liketh him, and bryngeth the very outcastes off men ouer them.

18 This is the dreame, yt I kynge Nabuchodonosor haue sene. Therfore o Balthasar, tell thou me what it signifieth: for so moch as all the wyse men off my kyngdome are not able to shewe me, what it meaneth. But thou canst do it, for ye sprete of the holy Goddes is in the.

19 Then Daniel (whose name was Balthasar) helde his peace by the space of an houre ad his thoughtes troubled him. So the kynge spake, and sayde: O Balthasar, let nether the dreame ner the interpretacion theroff feare the. Balthasar answered, sayenge: O my LORDE, this dreame happen to thyne enemies, and the interpretacion to thyne aduersaries.

20 As for the tre that thou sawest which was so greate & mightie, whose heyth reached vnto the heauen, and his bredth in to all the worlde:

21 whose leaues were fayre, ad the frute moch: vnder the which the beastes of the felde had their habitacion, and vpon whose braunches the foules of the ayre dyd syt: