The Writing on the Wall Explained

¹³ Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke, and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel ^[a]who is one of the captives from Judah, whom my ^[b]father the king brought from Judah?

¹³ So they answered and said before the king, “That Daniel, ^(A)who is ^[a]one of the captives from Judah, ^(B)does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”

^11 (A)There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God. And in the days of your ^[a]father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar your ^[b]father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers.

²⁵ Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king, and said thus to him, “I have found a man of the ^[a]captives of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation.”

^3 (A)His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing.

¹⁶ Then the descendants of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain ^(A)heads of the fathers’ households, were set apart by the fathers’ households, each of them by name; and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

The Passover Celebrated^(A)

^19 [a]And the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover ^(B)on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²⁰ For the priests and the Levites had ^(C)purified themselves; all of them were ritually clean. And they ^(D)slaughtered the Passover lambs for all the descendants of the captivity, for their brethren the priests, and for themselves.

¹⁶ Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated ^(A)the dedication of this ^[a]house of God with joy.

Resistance to Rebuilding the Temple

4 Now when ^(A)the ^[a]adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel,