1 Kings 14:6

¹³He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

⁷“‘“For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of me, I the LORD will answer him by myself. ⁸I will set my face against that man and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

³“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them? ⁴Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him there according to the multitude of his idols, ⁵that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.”’

¹⁷Then Daniel answered before the king, “Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

¹⁸“To you, king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty. ¹⁹Because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. He killed whom he wanted to, and he kept alive whom he wanted to. He raised up whom he wanted to, and he put down whom he wanted to. ²⁰But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. ²¹He was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the animals’, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of the sky, until he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that he sets up over it whomever he will.

²²“You, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, ²³but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, or hear, or know; and you have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways. ²⁴Then the part of the hand was sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed.

²⁵“This is the writing that was inscribed: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’

²⁶“This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE: God has counted your kingdom, and brought it to an end.

²⁷TEKEL: you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.

²⁸PERES: your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”

¹⁶Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.”

²⁶Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the LORD’s word, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

¹⁰therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall,^[+] he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung until it is all gone. ¹¹The dogs will eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam who dies in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat whoever dies in the field, for the LORD has spoken it.”’

¹⁹Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was stricken mute for a while, and his thoughts troubled him. The king answered, “Belteshazzar, don’t let the dream or the interpretation, trouble you.” Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation to your adversaries.

²⁰The tree that you saw, which grew and was strong, whose height reached to the sky and its sight to all the earth; ²¹whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit plentiful, and in it was food for all; under which the animals of the field lived, and on whose branches the birds of the sky had their habitation— ²²it is you, O king, that have grown and become strong; for your greatness has grown, and reaches to the sky, and your dominion to the end of the earth.

²³“Whereas the king saw a holy watcher coming down from the sky and saying, ‘Cut down the tree, and destroy it; nevertheless leave the stump of its roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of the sky. Let his portion be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him.’

²⁴“This is the interpretation, O king, and it is the decree of the Most High, which has come on my lord the king: ²⁵You will be driven from men and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You will be made to eat grass as oxen, and will be wet with the dew of the sky, and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will.

¹⁰The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.

⁴The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘This is what the Lord^[+] GOD says.’ ⁵They, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that there has been a prophet among them.