8. The king replied, “I know what you are doing! You’re stalling for time because you know I am serious when I say,
9. ‘If you don’t tell me the dream, you are doomed.’ So you have conspired to tell me lies, hoping I will change my mind. But tell me the dream, and then I’ll know that you can tell me what it means.”
10. The astrologers replied to the king, “No one on earth can tell the king his dream! And no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer!
11. The king’s demand is impossible. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they do not live here among people.”
12. The king was furious when he heard this, and he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon be executed.
13. And because of the king’s decree, men were sent to find and kill Daniel and his friends.
14. When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, came to kill them, Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion.
15. He asked Arioch, “Why has the king issued such a harsh decree?” So Arioch told him all that had happened.
16. Daniel went at once to see the king and requested more time to tell the king what the dream meant.
17. Then Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened.
18. He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not be executed along with the other wise men of Babylon.
19. That night the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven.
20. He said, “Praise the name of God forever and ever,for he has all wisdom and power.