⁸ The king replied, “I know for sure that you are attempting to gain time, because you see that my decision is firm. ⁹ If you don’t inform me of the dream, there is only one thing that is going to happen to you.^[a] For you have agreed among yourselves to report to me something false and deceitful^[b] until such time as things might change. So tell me the dream, and I will have confidence^[c] that you can disclose its interpretation.”

¹⁰ The wise men replied to the king, “There is no man on earth who is able to disclose the king’s secret,^[d] for no king, regardless of his position and power, has ever requested such a thing from any magician, astrologer, or wise man.