God Reveals Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

¹⁴ Then with counsel and wisdom Daniel answered Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon;

Daniel Explains the Dream

²⁴ Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation.”

¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

^12 (A)Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (^(B)which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ^(C)Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

^9 (A)Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained in the city and those who ^(B)defected to him, with the rest of the people who remained.

Wisdom Superior to Folly

¹³ This wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and it seemed great to me: ^14 (A)There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great ^[a]snares around it. ¹⁵ Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man.

¹⁶ Then I said:

¹⁶ Then a wise woman cried out from the city, “Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, ‘Come nearby, that I may speak with you.’ ” ¹⁷ When he had come near to her, the woman said, “Are you Joab?”

He answered, “I am.”

Then she said to him, “Hear the words of your maidservant.”

And he answered, “I am listening.”

¹⁸ So she spoke, saying, “They used to talk in former times, saying, ‘They shall surely seek guidance at Abel,’ and so they would end disputes. ¹⁹ I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up ^(A)the inheritance of the Lord?”

²⁰ And Joab answered and said, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy! ²¹ That is not so. But a man from the mountains of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has raised his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city.”

So the woman said to Joab, “Watch, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.” ²² Then the woman ^(B)in her wisdom went to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. Then he blew a trumpet, and they withdrew from the city, every man to his tent. So Joab returned to the king at Jerusalem.

³⁶ Now ^(A)the ^[a]Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.