Daniel was taken from Judah to Babylon, served in the royal court, and interpreted dreams and visions. His book opens with Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem in Jehoiakim’s third year. Babylon’s king ordered young Israelites brought for palace service. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were among them.
The four were assigned three years of instruction in Chaldean learning and language and given food and wine from the king. They also received new names. Daniel became Belteshazzar, Hananiah became Shadrach, Mishael became Meshach, and Azariah became Abednego. Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and asked the chief official for permission.
The official feared punishment if the four looked worse than the other young men. Daniel asked their steward to give them vegetables and water for ten days and then compare their appearance. They looked better after the test, so the steward replaced the royal food with vegetables. God gave all four knowledge and wisdom and gave Daniel understanding of dreams and visions. At the end of their training, the king found their wisdom and understanding ten times better than that of his magicians and enchanters.
Daniel 2 recounts a crisis over Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king ordered Babylon’s wise men killed when they could not tell him the dream and its meaning. Daniel and his friends were also sought for execution. Daniel asked Arioch, the guard commander, about the order and requested time from the king. At home he told his three friends and asked them to seek God’s mercy. When the mystery was revealed in a night vision, Daniel praised God. He told Arioch not to kill the other wise men and to take him before the king.
Daniel said the mystery had not been revealed because he was wiser than others. He described an image made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay. A stone cut out without human hands shattered it and became a great mountain. Daniel explained that several kingdoms would arise, but God would establish a kingdom that could never be destroyed. The king gave him gifts and authority over the province of Babylon and its wise men. At Daniel’s request, his three friends also received provincial responsibilities, while he remained at the king’s court.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were the men thrown into a furnace for refusing to bow to the golden image. They said they would not serve the king’s gods or bow even if God did not rescue them. After they survived the fire, the king praised their God and promoted them. Daniel does not appear in this episode, and the book does not explain where he was.
When Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a great tree being cut down, Daniel was called to interpret it. Troubled, he wished that its meaning concerned the king’s enemies. The tree represented the king, who would be driven from people to live among animals until he learned that God ruled kingdoms. Daniel urged him to practice righteousness and show mercy to the poor. Twelve months later, as the king boasted that his own power had built Babylon, the dream came true. When he later recovered his reason and rule, he praised God.
In Belshazzar’s first year, Daniel dreamed of four beasts rising from the sea and wrote the vision down. He saw the Ancient of Days seated for judgment and one like a son of man coming with the clouds to receive everlasting authority. Daniel asked someone standing nearby for an explanation. The four beasts represented four kings who would arise, but the holy people of the Most High would finally receive the kingdom. Daniel was deeply troubled, his face changed, and he kept the matter in his heart.
In Belshazzar’s third year, Daniel saw a vision at Susa by the Ulai River. A ram with two horns and a male goat appeared. The goat’s great horn broke, and four horns replaced it. Gabriel explained that the ram represented Media and Persia’s kings and the goat represented Greece’s king. A later ruler would harm the sanctuary and holy people but be broken without human hands. Daniel was ill for several days afterward. He returned to the king’s work but remained astonished and without understanding of the vision.
At Belshazzar’s feast, people drank from Jerusalem’s temple vessels and praised other gods. Fingers wrote on the wall. When the wise men could not interpret the writing, the queen urged the king to call Daniel. Daniel told the king to give the promised rewards to others but read and explained the message. God had counted the kingdom and brought it to an end, weighed the king and found him wanting, and given the kingdom to the Medes and Persians. Daniel rebuked the king for failing to humble himself despite knowing what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel received the honors, but Belshazzar was killed that night and Darius the Mede received the kingdom.
The records of Darius’s first year include Daniel’s prayer. Reading Jeremiah’s message, he considered the seventy years appointed for Jerusalem’s desolation. He fasted, wore sackcloth, and sat in ashes, confessing his own sin and Israel’s sin. He appealed to God’s mercy rather than human righteousness and asked God to attend to the ruined sanctuary and city. During his prayer Gabriel came with a message about seventy weeks appointed for the people and the holy city.
Under Darius, Daniel was one of three chief administrators. When the king considered putting him over the whole realm, other officials searched for grounds to accuse him. Finding no fault in his work, they targeted his service to God. They persuaded the king to decree that anyone petitioning a god or person other than the king for thirty days would be thrown into the lions’ den.
Knowing the decree had been signed, Daniel continued kneeling and praying three times a day at windows facing Jerusalem, giving thanks as before. The king tried to rescue him after hearing the charge but could not change the law. Daniel was put into the lions’ den, and its entrance was closed with a stone and sealed with the king’s signet. The king fasted through the night and could not sleep.
At dawn the king called to Daniel at the den. Daniel said God had sent an angel to close the lions’ mouths. He was brought out unharmed. The king then had the accusers, their wives, and their children thrown into the den, where the lions killed them. This was the king’s order. Darius issued a proclamation that people should fear Daniel’s God. Daniel prospered under Darius and Cyrus of Persia.
In Cyrus’s third year, Daniel mourned for three weeks, avoiding choice food, meat, and wine and using no oil. At the Hiddekel River he saw a shining figure, but his companions did not see the vision and fled in fear. Daniel lost his strength and fell facedown. The one speaking to him said that his words had been heard from the first day, but the prince of Persia had resisted for twenty-one days until Michael helped. Daniel said he had no strength or breath. Another touch strengthened him so that he could listen.
The message that followed described kings, wars, the sanctuary’s desecration, and persecution. People who knew God would stand firm, and wise people would instruct many, but they too would suffer. Daniel said he had heard without understanding and asked how these events would end. He was told to preserve and seal the words until the time of the end.
The final message says that during distress, the people recorded in the book will be delivered and many sleeping in the dust will awake. Some will receive everlasting life and others everlasting shame. The wise and those who lead many to righteousness will shine. Daniel is promised rest and his allotted portion at the end of the days.