UNROLL
Early morning before Babylon's great blue-glazed gate: four young men with small bundles, seen from behind, walk toward the open gateway beside a robed Babylonian officer; pale empty sky above the flat wall top.

Exiles at court

Daniel 1

What do you hold on to when everything around you has been renamed?

21 verses≈ 4 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1Exiles at courtBabylon, 605 BC: four young men and the king’s foodChapter 1
  2. 2The king’s dreamAbout 603 BC: a statue, a stone, a kingdom forever
  3. 3The fiery furnaceThree men who would not bow
  4. 4The great treeNebuchadnezzar humbled, then praising God
  5. 5The writing on the wall539 BC: Belshazzar’s feast, Babylon’s last night
  6. 6The lions’ denDarius the Mede, and a man who kept praying
  7. 7Four beasts and the Son of ManBelshazzar’s first year: the kingdoms again
  8. 8The ram and the goatMedia and Persia, Greece, and a proud horn
  9. 9Seventy weeksDarius’s first year: Daniel’s prayer and Gabriel’s answer
  10. 10–12The last visionCyrus’s third year: kings, the end, and the rising

Daniel Removed to Babylon

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

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A dim storeroom of sun-dried brick in a temple of Babylon lit by one clay oil lamp: a Babylonian temple servant sets a gold bowl and a bronze basin on a mud-brick shelf among other bowls and jars; a dark doorway behind with nothing visible in it.

And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with some of the articles from the house of God. He carried these off to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, where he put them in the treasury of his god.

EuphratesJerusalemRiblahCarchemishBabylon

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

The road to Babylon

In 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar beat Egypt at Carchemish and swept south. The captives went north and round the bend of the Euphrates, about 900 miles, to Babylon.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring in some Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— young men without blemish, handsome, gifted in all wisdom, knowledgeable, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace—and to teach them the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

A low table in a palace hall laid with roast lamb on platters, flat loaves, figs and dates, silver cups and a tall painted wine jar, servants carrying in more dishes.

The king assigned them daily provisions of the royal food and wine. They were to be trained for three years, after which they were to enter the king’s service.

Among these young men were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

Daniel’s Faithfulness

But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine.

Daniel 1:8

So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself.

The chief official

Now God had granted Daniel favor and compassion from the chief official, but he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking thinner than those of the other young men your age? You would endanger my head before the king!”

Daniel
Daniel

Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given only vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearances with those of the young men who are eating the royal food, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

Question

Quick question

Daniel asked the steward for a test before anyone was put at risk.

What did Daniel ask to eat and drink for the ten-day test?

Daniel’s Wisdom

To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. And Daniel had insight into all kinds of visions and dreams.

Now at the end of the time specified by the king, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them, and among all the young men he found no one equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the king’s service.

In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.

Evening at a high palace window in Babylon: an old white-bearded man in a gray robe, seen from behind, looks out west over flat roofs, palms and the river as the sky turns gold.

And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

0:05

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Reflect

A quiet line

Babylon gave Daniel a new name, a new language and the king’s food. He took the first two and drew a line at the third. Where is God asking you to draw a quiet line?

You’ve experienced

Daniel 1

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A verse to carry with you

But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine.

Daniel 1:8

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