12 Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant;it had enough food for everyone.Wild animals took shade under it;birds nested in its branches.All living things lived off that tree.
13 “In my mind, as I lay in bed, I saw another vision: A holy watcher came down from heaven.
14 He proclaimed loudly:‘Cut down the tree and shear off its branches!Strip its leaves and scatter its fruit!The creatures should flee from its shelter;the birds should take flight from its branches.
15 But leave its deepest root in the earth,bound with iron and bronze in the field grass.Dew from heaven is to wash it,and it must live with the animals in the earth’s vegetation.
16 Its human mind is to be changed:it will be given the mind of an animal.Seven periods of time will pass over it.
17 This sentence is by the watchers’ decree;this decision is the holy ones’ wordso that all who live might knowthat the Most High dominates human kingship.The Most High gives kingship to anyone he wantsand sets over it the lowest of people.’
18 "This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had. So now Belteshazzar, tell me the meaning because all the sages in my kingdom were unable to interpret it for me. But you are able to do it because the breath of the holy gods is in you."