In the third year of the reign of 1aJehoiakim king of Judah, 2bNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.Pharaoh Neco had killed Josiah king of Judah and installed Eliakim (Josiah’s son) as a vassal ruler. Neco changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim and he ruled for eleven years (2 Chr 36:4, 5).Nebuchadnezzar II of the Chaldean Dynasty, more commonly known as Nebuchadnezzar the Great, ruled Babylon from 605-562 B.C. He conquered Jerusalem in 597 B.C.2 Kin 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5, 6Jer 25:1; 52:12, 28-30 2 The aLord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the barticles of the house of God; and he brought them into the land of 1cShinar, to the house of his god, and brought the articles into the treasury of his dgod. 2+@Chr 36:5-7; Jer 27:19, 20; Dan 5:1-3I.e. southern Babylonia.Is 42:24; Dan 2:37, 382 Chr 36:7; Jer 27:19, 20; Dan 5:2Gen 10:10; 11:2; Is 11:11; Zech 5:11Jer 50:2; 51:44
3 And the Babylonian king told Ashpenaz, the chief of his 1officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some from the royal afamily and from the nobles, 2+@Kin 20:17, 18Or eunuchs, and so throughout.2 Kin 24:15; Is 39:7 4 young men awithout blemish and handsome in appearance, bskillful in all wisdom, endowed with intelligence and discernment, and quick to understand, competent to stand in the presence of the king and able to serve in the king’s palace. He also ordered Ashpenaz to teach them the literature and clanguage of the 1dChaldeans.The Chaldeans dominated and ruled Babylonia from 625 B.C. until their empire fell in 539 B.C., but they were known as early as 1000 B.C. as an aggressive, tribal people in the southern region of Babylonia. They were highly skilled in both the science of astronomy and the pseudo-science of astrology. They kept meticulous records of celestial motion and correctly calculated the length of a year to within just a few minutes. Babylon, their capital city, was the center of trade and learning in the western part of Asia. The classical literature of the Chaldeans was written in cuneiform, but the common language, both written and spoken in Babylon, was Akkadian increasingly influenced by Aramaic.2 Sam 14:25Dan 1:17Is 36:11; Jer 5:15; Dan 2:4Dan 2:2, 4, 5, 10; 3:8; 4:7; 5:7, 11, 30; 9:1 5 The king assigned a daily ration for them from ahis finest food and from the wine which he drank. They were to be educated and nourished this way for three years so that at the end of that time they were prepared to benter the king’s service.Dan 1:81 Sam 16:22; Dan 1:19 6 Among them from the sons of Judah were: aDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.Ezek 14:14, 20; 28:3; Matt 24:15 7 The commander of the officials gave them Babylonian names: Daniel he named aBelteshazzar, Hananiah he named bShadrach, Mishael he named cMeshach, and Azariah he named dAbed-nego.Dan 2:26; 4:8; 5:12Dan 2:49; 3:12
8 But Daniel made up his mind that he would not adefile himself with the 1bking’s finest food or with the cwine which the king drank; so he asked the commander of the officials that he might be excused so that he would not defile himself. Num 6:1-4; 1+@Cor 10:21The first portions of the food and wine would have been presented to idols before being served at the table.Lev 11:47; Ezek 4:13, 14; Hos 9:3, 4Ps 141:4; Dan 1:5Deut 32:38; Dan 5:4 9 Now God granted Daniel afavor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials,Gen 39:21; 1 Kin 8:50; Job 5:15, 16; Ps 106:46; Prov 16:7 10 and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has prearranged your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the young men who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.” 11 But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Please, test your servants for ten days, and let us be agiven some vegetables to eat and water to drink.Dan 1:16 13 Then let our appearance and the appearance of the young men who eat the king’s finest food be observed and compared by you, and deal with your servants in accordance with what you see.”
14 So the man listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. 15 At the end of ten days it seemed that they were looking abetter and 1healthier than all the young men who ate the king’s finest food.Lit fat of flesh.Ex 23:25; Prov 10:22 16 So the overseer continued to withhold their fine food and the wine they were to drink, and kept agiving them vegetables.Dan 1:12
17 As for these four young men, aGod gave them knowledge and skill in all kinds of literature and wisdom; Daniel also understood all kinds of bvisions and dreams. Luke 21:15; James 1:5-71 Kin 3:12, 28; Job 32:8; Dan 1:20; 2:21, 23; Acts 7:22Dan 2:19; 7:1; 8:1
18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring all the young men in before him, the commander of the officials presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king spoke with them, and among them all not one was found like aDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they were selected and assigned to bstand before the king and enter his personal service.Dan 1:6, 7Gen 41:46; Dan 1:5 20 In every matter of awisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them bten times cbetter than all the learned dmagicians and enchanters in his whole realm.1 Kin 4:30, 31; Dan 1:17Gen 31:7; Num 14:22; Neh 4:12; Job 19:3Dan 2:27, 28, 46, 48Is 19:3; Dan 2:2; 4:18; 5:7 21 And Daniel remained there until the 1afirst year of the reign of King Cyrus over Babylon; now this was at the end of the seventy-year exile of Judah in Babylonia, as foretold by Jeremiah. Ezra 1:1-3; Jer 25:11, 12; 29:10Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, ruled from 559-529 B.C. He conquered the Median (549 B.C.), the Lydian (546 B.C.), and the Neo-Babylonian (539 B.C.) kingdoms and formed the greatest empire the world had ever known. He returned a remnant of the Jewish population from Babylon to Jerusalem along with an edict to rebuild the temple.Dan 6:28; 10:1