Content
Ch 1 Captives in Babylon
The story begins with a brief reference to king Nebuchadnezzar robbing the Jerusalem temple and carrying its treasures back to Babylon. It goes on to describe how some young members of the Judean nobility, including Daniel and his three companions, are inducted into the king's service. Daniel and his companions are given Babylonian names, but refuse to be 'defiled' by the royal provisions of food and wine. Their overseer fears for his life in case the health of his charges deteriorates, but Daniel suggests a ten-day trial on a simple diet of vegetables and water. When they miraculously emerge healthier than their counterparts, Daniel and his friends are allowed to continue with their diet. At the end of the induction period, the king finds them 'ten times better' than all the wise men in his service, and it is noted that Daniel has a particular gift for dream interpretation.
Ch 2 Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms
Nebuchadnezzar has a disturbing dream and asks his wise men to interpret it, but refuses to divulge its content. When they protest he sentences all of them, including Daniel and his friends, to death. Daniel asks permission to petition his God for a solution. He receives an explanatory vision in the night: Nebuchadnezzar has dreamed of an enormous statue with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of copper, legs of iron, and feet of mixed iron and clay. The statue is destroyed by a rock that turns into a huge mountain, filling the whole earth. The statue symbolises four successive kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, all of which will be crushed by God's kingdom, which will endure forever. Nebuchadnezzar raises Daniel to be chief over all his wise men, and appoints him and his companions to rule over all the chief cities of Babylon.
Ch 3 The fiery furnace
Daniel's companions Ananias (Hananiah/Shadrach), Azariah (Abednego), and Mishael (Meshach) refuse to bow to the emperor's golden statue and are thrown into a furnace. Nebuchadnezzar sees a fourth figure appear in the furnace with the three and God is credited for preserving them from the flames. Daniel does not appear in this story.
Ch 4 Nebuchadnezzar's madness
Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree that is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and live like a wild beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the specified time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that "heaven rules" and his kingdom and sanity are restored.
Ch 5 Belshazzar's feast
Belshazzar and his nobles blasphemously drink from sacred Jewish temple vessels, offering praise to inanimate gods, until a hand mysteriously appears and writes upon the wall of the palace. The horrified king eventually summons Daniel who is able to read the writing and offer the following interpretation: Mene, Mene – God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel – You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Upharsin – Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. "That very night", we are informed, Belshazzar was slain and "Darius the Mead" took over the kingdom.
Ch 6 Daniel in the lions' den
Daniel is elevated to a pre-eminent position under Darius which elicits the jealousy of other officials. Knowing of Daniel's devotion to his God, these officials trick the king into issuing an edict forbidding worship of any other god or man for a 30-day period. Because Daniel continues to pray three times a day to God towards Jerusalem, he is accused and King Darius, forced by his own decree, throws Daniel into the lions' den. God shuts up the mouths of the lions and the next morning king Darius finds Daniel unharmed and casts his accusers and their families into the lions' pit where they are instantly devoured.
Ch 7 Vision of the beasts from the sea and the Son of Man
This vision, set in the first year of Belshazzar, concerns four great beasts (7:3) representing future kings (7:17) or kingdoms (7:23). The fourth of these devours the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it (7:23). This fourth beast has ten horns representing ten kings. They are followed by a further wicked king, or "little horn", who subdues three of the ten (7:24), speaks against the Most High, wages war against the saints, and attempts to change the set times and laws (7:25). This king is judged and stripped of his kingdom by an "Ancient of Days" and his heavenly court(7:26). Next, "one like a son of man" approaches the Ancient of Days and is invested with worldwide dominion. Moreover, his everlasting reign over all earthly kingdoms is shared with "the people of the Most High" (7:27).
Ch 8 Vision of the ram and goat
This vision in the third year of Belshazzar describes Daniel's vision of a ram and goat that, according to the text, represent Media, Persia (the ram's two horns) and Greece (the goat). The goat with the mighty horn, becomes very powerful until the horn breaks off and is replaced by four "lesser" horns. The vision then focuses on a small horn that grows very large, representing a wicked king who arises to challenge the "army of the Lord" by removing the daily temple sacrifices and desecrating the sanctuary for a period of "twenty three hundred evening/mornings". The vision culminates in the "cleansing" or reconsecration of the temple.
Ch 9 Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks
The vision in first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus (9:1) concerning seventy weeks, or seventy "sevens", apportioned for the history of the Israelites and of Jerusalem (9:24) This consists of a meditation on the prediction in Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years, a lengthy prayer by Daniel in which he pleads for God to restore Jerusalem and its temple, and an angelic explanation which focuses on a longer time period – "seventy sevens" – and a future restoration and destruction of city and temple by a coming ruler.
Ch 10-12 Vision of the kings of north and south
Daniel 10–12, set in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia (around 536 BCE), recounts a vision of a great war. Chapter 10 tells how an angel (called "a man", but clearly a supernatural being) appears to Daniel and explains that he is in the midst of a war with the "prince of Persia", assisted only by Michael, "your prince." The "prince of Greece" will shortly come, but first he will reveal what will happen Daniel's people (the Jews) in that time.
Daniel 11 begins the angel's revelation of the coming war. A future king of Persia will make war on the king of Greece, a "mighty king" will arise and wield power until his empire is broken up and given to others, and finally the king of the south (identified in verse 8 as Egypt) will go to war with the king of the North. After many battles (described in great detail) a "contemptible person" will become king of the North; this king will invade the South two times, the first time with success, but on his second invasion he will be stopped by "ships of Kittim." He will turn back to his own country, and on the way his soldiers will desecrate the Temple, abolish the daily sacrifice, and set up the abomination of desolation. The triumphant king of the north will wage war in the Levant and defeat and subjugate Libya and Egypt, but "reports from the east and north will alarm him," and he will meet his end "between the sea and the holy mountain."
Daniel 12: the angel reveals that at this time Michael, "the great prince who protects your people," will come. It will be a time of great distress, but all those whose names are written will be delivered. "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt; those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." In the final verses the remaining time to the end is revealed: "a time, times and half a time" (two years and a half). Daniel fails to understand and asks again what will happen, and is told: "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days."
The story begins with a brief reference to king Nebuchadnezzar robbing the Jerusalem temple and carrying its treasures back to Babylon. It goes on to describe how some young members of the Judean nobility, including Daniel and his three companions, are inducted into the king's service. Daniel and his companions are given Babylonian names, but refuse to be 'defiled' by the royal provisions of food and wine. Their overseer fears for his life in case the health of his charges deteriorates, but Daniel suggests a ten-day trial on a simple diet of vegetables and water. When they miraculously emerge healthier than their counterparts, Daniel and his friends are allowed to continue with their diet. At the end of the induction period, the king finds them 'ten times better' than all the wise men in his service, and it is noted that Daniel has a particular gift for dream interpretation.
Ch 2 Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms
Nebuchadnezzar has a disturbing dream and asks his wise men to interpret it, but refuses to divulge its content. When they protest he sentences all of them, including Daniel and his friends, to death. Daniel asks permission to petition his God for a solution. He receives an explanatory vision in the night: Nebuchadnezzar has dreamed of an enormous statue with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of copper, legs of iron, and feet of mixed iron and clay. The statue is destroyed by a rock that turns into a huge mountain, filling the whole earth. The statue symbolises four successive kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, all of which will be crushed by God's kingdom, which will endure forever. Nebuchadnezzar raises Daniel to be chief over all his wise men, and appoints him and his companions to rule over all the chief cities of Babylon.
Ch 3 The fiery furnace
Daniel's companions Ananias (Hananiah/Shadrach), Azariah (Abednego), and Mishael (Meshach) refuse to bow to the emperor's golden statue and are thrown into a furnace. Nebuchadnezzar sees a fourth figure appear in the furnace with the three and God is credited for preserving them from the flames. Daniel does not appear in this story.
Ch 4 Nebuchadnezzar's madness
Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree that is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and live like a wild beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the specified time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that "heaven rules" and his kingdom and sanity are restored.
Ch 5 Belshazzar's feast
Belshazzar and his nobles blasphemously drink from sacred Jewish temple vessels, offering praise to inanimate gods, until a hand mysteriously appears and writes upon the wall of the palace. The horrified king eventually summons Daniel who is able to read the writing and offer the following interpretation: Mene, Mene – God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel – You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Upharsin – Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. "That very night", we are informed, Belshazzar was slain and "Darius the Mead" took over the kingdom.
Ch 6 Daniel in the lions' den
Daniel is elevated to a pre-eminent position under Darius which elicits the jealousy of other officials. Knowing of Daniel's devotion to his God, these officials trick the king into issuing an edict forbidding worship of any other god or man for a 30-day period. Because Daniel continues to pray three times a day to God towards Jerusalem, he is accused and King Darius, forced by his own decree, throws Daniel into the lions' den. God shuts up the mouths of the lions and the next morning king Darius finds Daniel unharmed and casts his accusers and their families into the lions' pit where they are instantly devoured.
Ch 7 Vision of the beasts from the sea and the Son of Man
This vision, set in the first year of Belshazzar, concerns four great beasts (7:3) representing future kings (7:17) or kingdoms (7:23). The fourth of these devours the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it (7:23). This fourth beast has ten horns representing ten kings. They are followed by a further wicked king, or "little horn", who subdues three of the ten (7:24), speaks against the Most High, wages war against the saints, and attempts to change the set times and laws (7:25). This king is judged and stripped of his kingdom by an "Ancient of Days" and his heavenly court(7:26). Next, "one like a son of man" approaches the Ancient of Days and is invested with worldwide dominion. Moreover, his everlasting reign over all earthly kingdoms is shared with "the people of the Most High" (7:27).
Ch 8 Vision of the ram and goat
This vision in the third year of Belshazzar describes Daniel's vision of a ram and goat that, according to the text, represent Media, Persia (the ram's two horns) and Greece (the goat). The goat with the mighty horn, becomes very powerful until the horn breaks off and is replaced by four "lesser" horns. The vision then focuses on a small horn that grows very large, representing a wicked king who arises to challenge the "army of the Lord" by removing the daily temple sacrifices and desecrating the sanctuary for a period of "twenty three hundred evening/mornings". The vision culminates in the "cleansing" or reconsecration of the temple.
Ch 9 Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks
The vision in first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus (9:1) concerning seventy weeks, or seventy "sevens", apportioned for the history of the Israelites and of Jerusalem (9:24) This consists of a meditation on the prediction in Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years, a lengthy prayer by Daniel in which he pleads for God to restore Jerusalem and its temple, and an angelic explanation which focuses on a longer time period – "seventy sevens" – and a future restoration and destruction of city and temple by a coming ruler.
Ch 10-12 Vision of the kings of north and south
Daniel 10–12, set in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia (around 536 BCE), recounts a vision of a great war. Chapter 10 tells how an angel (called "a man", but clearly a supernatural being) appears to Daniel and explains that he is in the midst of a war with the "prince of Persia", assisted only by Michael, "your prince." The "prince of Greece" will shortly come, but first he will reveal what will happen Daniel's people (the Jews) in that time.
Daniel 11 begins the angel's revelation of the coming war. A future king of Persia will make war on the king of Greece, a "mighty king" will arise and wield power until his empire is broken up and given to others, and finally the king of the south (identified in verse 8 as Egypt) will go to war with the king of the North. After many battles (described in great detail) a "contemptible person" will become king of the North; this king will invade the South two times, the first time with success, but on his second invasion he will be stopped by "ships of Kittim." He will turn back to his own country, and on the way his soldiers will desecrate the Temple, abolish the daily sacrifice, and set up the abomination of desolation. The triumphant king of the north will wage war in the Levant and defeat and subjugate Libya and Egypt, but "reports from the east and north will alarm him," and he will meet his end "between the sea and the holy mountain."
Daniel 12: the angel reveals that at this time Michael, "the great prince who protects your people," will come. It will be a time of great distress, but all those whose names are written will be delivered. "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt; those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." In the final verses the remaining time to the end is revealed: "a time, times and half a time" (two years and a half). Daniel fails to understand and asks again what will happen, and is told: "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days."