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About this book: Daniel

Daniel is the story of faithful people living inside an empire that does not share their God. Taken to Babylon as a teenager, Daniel and his three friends serve foreign kings while refusing to give up their loyalty to the Lord. The first half is made of vivid stories: a king's troubling dream, a fiery furnace, a writing on a palace wall, and a night in a den of lions. In each one, God shows that he rules over kings and rescues those who trust him. The second half records visions of beasts, kingdoms and a heavenly court, where one like a son of man receives an everlasting kingdom. Christians have long read these visions as pointing toward Christ, though they interpret the details in different ways. The book also contains a moving prayer of confession. Daniel encourages believers who live as minorities to stay faithful, to pray, and to trust that history is in God's hands.

Author
Traditionally Daniel himself; some scholars argue the book reached its final form in the second century BC.
Date
The stories are set in the sixth century BC, during the exile; scholars date the book's writing from then to about 165 BC.
Audience
Jewish exiles and later faithful Jews living under foreign rule, and all believers who face pressure to compromise.

Themes

Faithfulness under pressureGod's rule over kings and kingdomsPrayer and deliveranceVisions of the end and the Son of ManHope for those who wait

Outline

  1. 1:1–1:21Daniel and his friends in Babylon
  2. 2:1–2:49Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue
  3. 3:1–6:28The furnace, the writing on the wall and the lions' den
  4. 7:1–8:27Visions of beasts, a ram and a goat
  5. 9:1–9:27Daniel's prayer and the seventy weeks
  6. 10:1–12:13The final vision and the hope of resurrection

Key verses

Daniel 3:16-18 →Daniel 7:13-14 →Daniel 12:2-3 →
About this chapterDaniel and three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, are taken from Judah to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar's siege and chosen for training in the royal court. They are given Babylonian names and offered the king's rich food and wine. Daniel resolves not to defile himself and proposes a ten-day test on vegetables and water. After the test they look healthier than the others. God gives the four young men knowledge and skill, and Daniel understands visions and dreams. When the king examines them, he finds them ten times better than his advisers, and Daniel serves until the first year of King Cyrus.

Daniel and three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, are taken from Judah to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar's siege and chosen for training in the royal court. They are given Babylonian names and offered the king's rich food and wine. Daniel resolves not to defile himself and proposes a ten-day test on vegetables and water. After the test they look healthier than the others. God gives the four young men knowledge and skill, and Daniel understands visions and dreams. When the king examines them, he finds them ten times better than his advisers, and Daniel serves until the first year of King Cyrus.

Themes

  • Faithfulness in exile
  • Resolve to stay pure
  • God gives wisdom

Key verses

Audio Bible · Daniel 1

Listen while you go about your day.

Daniel 1

Berean Standard Bible21 verses · 3 min read

1In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2And 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. 3Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring in some Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— 4young 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. 5The 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. 6Among these young men were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. 8But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself. 9Now God had granted Daniel favor and compassion from the chief official, 10but 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!” 11Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12“Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given only vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13Then 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.” 14So he consented to this and tested them for ten days. 15And at the end of ten days, they looked healthier and better nourished than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. 16So the steward continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and he gave them vegetables instead. 17To 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. 18Now at the end of the time specified by the king, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19And 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. 20In 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. 21And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Verses in Daniel 1
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Chapters of Daniel

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