DANIEL, SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO ARE TAKEN BY KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO BE MADE SERVANTS IN HIS PALACE AT BABYLON. THEY REFUSE TO EAT OF THE FOOD WHICH IS SENT FOR THEM FROM THE KING'S TABLE. DANIEL INTERPRETS NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM OF THE GREAT IMAGE.
WHILE king Nebuchadnezzar was in Jerusalem, he commanded the chief of his officers to choose some of the princes of the children of Israel, that he might take them to be servants in his palace at Babylon. None should be chosen, the king said, who had any fault in them, but only such as were young and beautiful and quick to learn. For he wanted them to be taught in all the wisdom of the Chaldeans, and to learn also the language that the Chaldeans spoke. After they had been instructed in these things for three years, they were to come to the palace, and stay there and wait on the king.
Among those that were chosen by the chief officer, were four young men, named Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These four were brought to Babylon, and teachers were set over them, that they might be taught as king Nebuchadnezzar commanded. And the king sent them, each day, meat and wine from his own table, intending so to feed them until they should come to live at the palace, and wait upon him.
Now the Chaldeans worshipped idols, and offered up sacrifices of animals, and drink offerings of wine, to them; and they ate of the sacrifices and drank of the wine that had been offered to their idols. But Daniel did not wish to eat what had been offered to idols, lest he might offend the Lord; and, beside, some of the animals that the Chaldeans ate, the Lord had commanded the children of Israel not to eat; they were called unclean. Therefore Daniel said to himself that he would not eat of the meat nor drink of the wine that the king sent him, and the three young men who were with him said so too.
And Daniel spoke to the chief officer, who had the care of him, about this thing, and asked his permission not to eat the food which the king sent. Now the Lord had made the chief officer love Daniel, yet he dared not do as Daniel asked him; he answered, saying, I am afraid it will displease the king, who sends you your meat and your drink. For if, after a while, he should see your faces look paler and thinner than the faces of the other young men who eat food from the king's table, he may be angry with me, and put me to death.
And the chief officer gave Daniel and his friends to the care of the steward. Then Daniel came and asked the steward; he said, Try us, I beseech thee, ten days: give us, for that time, only pulse (that is, vegetables) to eat, and water to drink. Afterward look at our faces and at the faces of the other young men, and if we look not as well as they, then give us whatever thou shalt think best to eat.
So the steward gave them pulse for ten days, and at the end of that time their faces were fatter and fairer than the faces of all the other young men who ate food from the king's table. Then he took away the meat and the wine that were sent to them, and gave them only pulse to eat. And God helped these four young men to get knowledge and wisdom, and he made Daniel to understand visions and dreams.
After they had been taught for three years, the chief officer brought them into the palace of the king. And King Nebuchadnezzar talked with them, and found that among all those who had been chosen for his servants, none were like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; therefore they stayed at the palace and waited on the king. And in all the questions which the king asked them concerning the things they had learned, he found them ten times better than all the wise men in his kingdom. And Daniel lived in Babylon for more than seventy years. One night king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream that troubled him, so that he could not sleep. Then he commanded his servants to call all the wise men of Babylon; and the wise men came and stood before him. And the king said, I have dreamed a dream and am troubled because of it. Then the wise men spoke to the king, and said, O king, live forever: tell us what thy dream was, and we will interpret it for thee. The king answered, and said to the wise men, The thing is gone from me, and I cannot remember it: if you will not tell me what my dream was, and the interpretation of it, you shall be cut to pieces, and your houses shall be torn down and made into heaps. But if you will tell me my dream and interpret it for me, you shall have great riches and honor. Therefore tell me my dream and the interpretation of it.
The wise men answered again, and said, If the king will tell us his dream we will tell the interpretation of it. The king answered, I know that you want to deceive me and gain time, until some evil has happened to me, so that you need not tell me at all; therefore tell it to me now, and when you tell me what my dream was, I will know that you can tell me the interpretation. The wise men answered the king, and said, There is not a man on the earth who can tell the king his dream; therefore there is no king, or ruler, who would ask such a thing of any wise man. For it is a strange thing that the king asks of us—to tell him his dream when he himself has forgotten it; and none can tell him what it was, except the gods, who do not live on the earth.
Then the king was very angry, and he commanded that all the wise men of Babylon should be destroyed. And the commandment went forth that they should be slain. Now Daniel and his three friends had not been called before the king; but, as they were among the wise men, the king's servants sought for them that they also might be put to death. When Daniel heard of it, he said to the king's captain who had come out to slay the wise men, Why is the command made in such haste by the king? Then the captain told Daniel of all that had happened. And Daniel went into the palace to the king, and promised that if time should be given him, he would show the interpretation of the dream. And the king gave him the time that he asked for.
And Daniel went to his house, and told his three friends to pray that God would show him what the king's dream was, so that they might not be slain. And his three friends prayed to God as Daniel asked them. And in a vision of the night, God showed Daniel the dream and the interpretation of it. Then Daniel praised God, and said, I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, because thou hast heard our prayer, and told me the things that the king desires to know. Therefore Daniel went to the captain of the king's soldiers, and said to him, Destroy not the wise men of Babylon, but bring me in before the king, and I will tell him the interpretation of his dream.
Then the captain brought Daniel in haste before the king, and the king said to him, Art thou able to make known to me the dream that I have dreamed, and the interpretation of it? Daniel answered, The secret which the king has asked, no wise man on earth can tell him, but there is a God in heaven that telleth secret things; in thy dream he has made known to thee what shall happen in the times to come. And God has told it to me, not because I am wiser than any one else, but that I should tell it to thee, and show thee that he is the true God who is worshipped by the captives from Judah.
Then Daniel told king Nebuchadnezzar his dream: he said, Thou sawest in thy dream, O king, a great image. The form of it was terrible, and it shone with exceeding brightness as it stood before thee. Its head was made of fine gold, its breast and arms were of silver, the rest of its body was of brass; its legs were of iron, and its feet were part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest it, until, as thou wast looking, there came a stone cut out of a mountain, that struck the image upon its feet and broke them to pieces. Then the image fell, and the iron, the brass, the silver, the gold, and the clay, were all broken up together by the stone, into pieces as small as the dust which is left on the threshing-floor after the farmer has been threshing his grain; and the wind blew them away, no one could tell where. Afterward the stone that had broken the image, grew to be a great mountain and filled all the earth. This was the king's dream.
Then Daniel told the king the interpretation of it. The gold, the silver, the brass, the iron, and the clay, that were in the image, all meant different kingdoms. The head of gold meant Nebuchadnezzar himself, Daniel said, because God had given him the greatest of the kingdoms, and made him greater than all the other kings who were upon earth. But after he should die, new kingdoms would arise: the silver, the brass, the iron, and the clay meant these. Last of all, Daniel said, the Lord would set up one kingdom more, which should never be destroyed, but should break in pieces all the kingdoms that were before it, as the stone cut out of the mountain had broken the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. This stone meant the kingdom of Christ.
After Daniel had told the king his dream and the interpretation of it, the king fell on his face before Daniel, and said to him, It is true that your God is a God of gods, and a King of kings, and can tell all secret things, because he has told thee this dream. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many gifts, and appointed him ruler over the province of Babylon, and the chief governor over all the wise men. And because Daniel requested it, he made his three friends also, rulers in the land. But Daniel stayed at the palace of the king.