¹⁴ When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, came to kill them, Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion.

Daniel Interprets the Dream

²⁴ Then Daniel went in to see Arioch, whom the king had ordered to execute the wise men of Babylon. Daniel said to him, “Don’t kill the wise men. Take me to the king, and I will tell him the meaning of his dream.”

¹⁴ Then he supervised the entire Babylonian^[a] army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.

The Temple Destroyed

¹² On August 17 of that year,^[a] which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem.

⁹ Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles to Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had defected to him, and everyone else who remained.

Thoughts on Wisdom and Folly

¹³ Here is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works. ¹⁴ There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. ¹⁵ A poor, wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought to thank him. ¹⁶ So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long.

¹⁶ But a wise woman in the town called out to Joab, “Listen to me, Joab. Come over here so I can talk to you.” ¹⁷ As he approached, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?”

“I am,” he replied.

So she said, “Listen carefully to your servant.”

“I’m listening,” he said.

¹⁸ Then she continued, “There used to be a saying, ‘If you want to settle an argument, ask advice at the town of Abel.’ ¹⁹ I am one who is peace loving and faithful in Israel. But you are destroying an important town in Israel.^[a] Why do you want to devour what belongs to the Lord?”

²⁰ And Joab replied, “Believe me, I don’t want to devour or destroy your town! ²¹ That’s not my purpose. All I want is a man named Sheba son of Bicri from the hill country of Ephraim, who has revolted against King David. If you hand over this one man to me, I will leave the town in peace.”

“All right,” the woman replied, “we will throw his head over the wall to you.” ²² Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. So he blew the ram’s horn and called his troops back from the attack. They all returned to their homes, and Joab returned to the king at Jerusalem.

³⁶ Meanwhile, the Midianite traders^[a] arrived in Egypt, where they sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard.