fore in his sleep, but had forgotten it. Accordingly, God, out
of pity to those that were in danger, and out of regard to the wisdom of
Daniel, made known to him the dream and its interpretation, that so the
king might understand by him its signification also. When Daniel had
obtained this knowledge from God, he arose very joyful, and told it
his brethren, and made them glad, and to hope well that they should
now preserve their lives, of which they despaired before, and had their
minds full of nothing but the thoughts of dying. So when he had with
them returned thanks to God, who had commiserated their youth, when it
was day he came to Arioch, and desired him to bring him to the king,
because he would discover to him that dream which he had seen the night
before.

4. When Daniel was come in to the king, he excused himself first, that
he did not pretend to be wiser than the other Chaldeans and magicians,
when, upon their entire inability to discover his dream, he was
undertaking to inform him of it; for this was not by his own skill, or
on account of his having better cultivated his understanding than the
rest; but he said, "God hath had pity upon us, when we were in danger of
death, and when I prayed for the life of myself, and of those of my own
nation, hath made manifest to me both the dream, and the interpretation
thereof; for I was not less concerned for thy glory than for the sorrow
that we were by thee condemned to die, while thou didst so unjustly
command men, both good and excellent in themselves, to be put to death,
when thou enjoinedst them to do what was entirely above the reach of
human wisdom, and requiredst of them what was only the work of God.
Wherefore, as thou in thy sleep wast solicitous concerning those that
should succeed thee in the government of the whole world, God was
desirous to show thee all those that should reign after thee, and to
that end exhibited to thee the following dream: Thou seemedst to see
a great image standing before thee, the head of which proved to be of
gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs
of brass, but the legs and the feet of iron; after which thou sawest a
stone broken off from a mountain, which fell upon the image, and threw
it down, and brake it to pieces, and did not permit any part of it to
remain whole; but the gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron, became
smaller than meal, which, upon the blast of a violent wind, was by force
carri