³ Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, ^(A)his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family^[a] and of ^(B)the nobility, ⁴ youths without ^(C)blemish, of good appearance and ^(D)skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to ^(E)teach them the literature and language of the ^(F)Chaldeans. ⁵ The king assigned them a daily portion of ^(G)the food that the king ate, and of ^(H)the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for ^(I)three years, and at the end of that time they were to ^(J)stand before the king. ⁶ Among these were ^(K)Daniel, ^(L)Hananiah, ^(M)Mishael, and ^(N)Azariah of the tribe of Judah. ⁷ And ^(O)the chief of the eunuchs ^(P)gave them names: ^(Q)Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

Daniel's Faithfulness

⁸ But Daniel ^(R)resolved that he would not ^(S)defile himself with ^(T)the king's food, or with ^(U)the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to ^(V)defile himself. ^9 (W)And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, ¹⁰ and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” ¹¹ Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹² “Test your servants for ^(X)ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat ^(Y)the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” ¹⁴ So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵ At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate ^(Z)the king's food. ^16 (AA)So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them ^(AB)vegetables.

¹⁷ As for these four youths, ^(AC)God gave them learning and ^(AD)skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had ^(AE)understanding in all visions and dreams. ¹⁸ At the end of ^(AF)the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹ And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore ^(AG)they stood before the king. ²⁰ And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all ^(AH)the magicians and ^(AI)enchanters that were in all his kingdom. ²¹ And Daniel ^(AJ)was there until the first year of ^(AK)King Cyrus.

Submission to the Authorities

13 Let every person ^(A)be subject to the governing authorities. For ^(B)there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you ^(C)will receive his approval, ⁴ for ^(D)he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, ^(E)an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also ^(F)for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ^7 (G)Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

^15 (A)Then the Pharisees went and plotted how ^(B)to entangle him in his words. ¹⁶ And they sent ^(C)their disciples to him, along with ^(D)the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, ^(E)we know that you are true and teach ^(F)the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for ^(G)you are not swayed by appearances.^{[a] 17} Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay ^(H)taxes to ^(I)Caesar, or not?” ¹⁸ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why ^(J)put me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.^{[b] 20} And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” ²¹ They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, ^(K)“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” ²² When they heard it, they marveled. And they ^(L)left him and went away.