Old/New Testament

Israel's enemies take Daniel and his friends to Babylon

1 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem with his army. He put his soldiers around the city to attack it. This happened when Jehoiakim had been king of Judah for nearly three years. ² The Lord God gave Nebuchadnezzar power over King Jehoiakim. Nebuchadnezzar took away some special things that belonged in God's temple in Jerusalem. He took those things back to Babylon. He put them among the valuable things in the temple of his own god.

³ Nebuchadnezzar had an officer who was called Ashpenaz. Ashpenaz had authority over the king's other officers. One day, Nebuchadnezzar said to Ashpenaz, ‘Bring some of the Israelite men to me. Choose some men from the king of Judah's family, and choose some men from the other important Israelite families.’ ⁴ Nebuchadnezzar wanted young men who were strong and handsome. They must be clever so that they could learn and understand things quickly. They must be good enough to become King Nebuchadnezzar's servants. They would learn the language of Babylon, and they would read its books.

⁵ Every day, King Nebuchadnezzar sent special food for these men to eat. It was the same food and wine that he had for himself. His officers would teach the young men for three years. After that, the young men would be ready to serve the king.

⁶ Some of the young men from Judah that Ashpenaz chose were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. ⁷ The king's officer gave new names to them. Daniel was called Belteshazzar. Hananiah was called Shadrach. Mishael was called Meshach. Azariah was called Abednego.

Daniel refuses to eat the king's food

⁸ But Daniel decided that God did not want him to eat the king's food and wine. He knew that it might be against God's rules. So he asked the king's special officer that he might not have to eat the king's food. ⁹ God had already caused the officer to like Daniel and to be kind to him. ¹⁰ But the officer said to Daniel, ‘I am afraid of the king, who is my master. He has chosen the food that he wants you to eat. If you eat different food, you might become weaker than the other young men. If the king sees that, he might kill me!’

¹¹ The officer had chosen a guard to watch Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So Daniel spoke to this man. ¹² He said, ‘Please sir, watch us for ten days. Give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ After ten days, see what our faces and our bodies look like. Also see what the other young men who eat the king's food look like. When you look at them and you look at us, you can decide what to do with us.’

¹⁴ The guard agreed to what they said. He watched them for ten days. ¹⁵ After ten days, their faces seemed more handsome than the young men who ate the king's food. Their bodies also seemed to be fatter. ¹⁶ So the guard no longer gave them the king's food and wine to eat. He gave vegetables and water to them instead.

God makes Daniel and his friends wise

¹⁷ God helped these four young men to become clever and wise. While they studied, he helped them to learn from many different books. They could understand many things. Daniel could also understand the meaning of all kinds of dreams.

¹⁸ King Nebuchadnezzar had said that the young men must study for three years. After that time finished, the king's officer took them to the king. ¹⁹ The king spoke with all the young men. He discovered that there was nobody else like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they became the king's servants.^{[a] 20} Whenever the king needed help to understand something important, these men showed how wise they were. They knew ten times more than any of the king's other wise men. Those men used magic or they studied the stars to know what would happen in the future. They came from all the different countries that Nebuchadnezzar ruled.

²¹ And Daniel lived in Babylon until the year when Cyrus became king.

The king tells his wise men to explain his dream

2 When Nebuchadnezzar had been king for two years, he had many dreams. He had trouble in his mind and he could not sleep.

² He told his servants that they must bring the magicians, enchanters,^[b] diviners and wise men to him. He wanted them to explain his dream. So they came in and they stood in front of the king. ³ Then the king said to them, ‘I have had a dream that gives me trouble in my mind. I want to know what the dream means.’

⁴ Then the wise men answered the king. (This is in the Aramaic language.^[c]) They said, ‘King, live for ever! We are your servants. Tell us the dream. Then we will tell you what it means.’

⁵ The king replied to the wise men, ‘I have decided what to do. You must tell me what my dream was. Then you must tell me what it means. If not, I will punish you with death! My soldiers will cut you into pieces. They will knock down your houses so that they become heaps of stones. ⁶ You must tell me about the dream and you must tell me what it means. If you do that, I will give to you many gifts and great honour. So you must tell me my dream, and tell me what it means.’

⁷ They answered the king again, ‘We are your servants, so please tell us your dream. Then we will tell you what it means.’

⁸ The king said to them, ‘You know that I will not change my mind. So you are just trying to get more time. ⁹ If you do not tell me the dream, I will certainly punish you with death. You have agreed among yourselves to tell me lies. You want to deceive me until you can think of something better. So now, tell me the dream. Then I will believe you when you tell me what it means.’

¹⁰ The wise men answered the king, ‘There is nobody on earth who can know your dream! No king has ever asked anyone to do anything like this. No magician, enchanter or wise man could do that. Even the greatest and most powerful king has never asked anyone to do this. ¹¹ You are asking us to do something much too difficult! Nobody can do it, except the gods. And they do not live among men.’

¹² This made the king very angry. So he said to his soldiers, ‘Kill all the wise men in Babylon.’ ¹³ He sent a message to command them to kill all his wise men.

Some men went to look for Daniel and his friends too. They wanted to punish them with death. ¹⁴ But Daniel spoke carefully to Arioch. He was the captain of the king's soldiers who had gone to kill the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁵ Daniel said to Arioch, ‘Why is the king's command so cruel?’ Then Arioch explained everything to Daniel. ¹⁶ So Daniel went to see the king. He asked the king for more time. Then he would be able to tell the king what the dream meant.

God shows the dream to Daniel

¹⁷ Then Daniel went to his home. He told his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah what had happened. ¹⁸ He told them that they should pray to God in heaven. They should pray that God would help them with this problem. They should ask God to keep them safe. Then they would not die with all the other wise men of Babylon. ¹⁹ During the night, Daniel had a vision. God showed him the secret of the king's dream. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven. ²⁰ He said,

²⁴ So Daniel went to see Arioch, the king's officer. The king had told Arioch to kill all the wise men of Babylon. But Daniel said to him, ‘Do not kill Babylon's wise men. Take me to the king. Then I will tell the king what his dream means.’

²⁵ Then Arioch quickly took Daniel to meet the king. He said, ‘I have found this man, who is one of the people that you brought from Judah. He can tell you, sir, what your dream means.’

²⁶ The king spoke to Daniel, whose other name was Belteshazzar. He asked Daniel, ‘Can you tell me my dream? And can you tell me what it means?’

²⁷ Daniel answered the king, ‘Sir, your dream is a secret. No wise men, enchanters, magicians or diviners can tell you about it. ²⁸ But there is a God in heaven. He explains secret things. In your dream, he has shown you what will happen in future years. Now I will tell you the dream and the visions that you had while you lay on your bed.

²⁹ While you lay on your bed, you dreamed about future times. God explains secret things, and he has shown you what will happen in future years. ³⁰ I am not more wise than other people. But God has explained your secret dream to me, because he wants you to know what it means. He wants you to understand the thoughts in your mind.’

The dream

³¹ Daniel said, ‘In your dream, you saw in front of you a statue with a man's shape. It was very big and very bright. It frightened people very much. ³² Its head was made from pure gold. The top of its body and its arms were made from silver. Its lower body was made from bronze. ³³ The statue's legs were made from iron. Its feet had parts made from iron and parts made from clay. ³⁴ While you looked, someone cut out a large stone from a mountain. But no human hand did this. The stone hit the statue on its iron and clay feet. The stone broke them into pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold all broke into pieces. They became like chaff that the wind blows away. Nobody could see any of those pieces any more. But the stone that had hit the statue became a large mountain. It filled the whole earth.’

Daniel explains the dream to the king

³⁶ Daniel continued to say, ‘That was your dream, King Nebuchadnezzar. Now we will tell you what it means. ³⁷ You are a great king who rules over other kings. The God of heaven has given you authority to rule. He has given you power, strength and honour. ³⁸ He has put all the people of this world, the wild animals and the birds under your power. He has given you authority to rule them all, in every place that they live. You are like the head of gold that you saw in your dream.

³⁹ After you, there will be another kingdom. It will not be as great as your kingdom. Then a third kingdom will come. It will be like the bronze part of the statue. It will also rule the whole earth. ⁴⁰ Then there will be a fourth kingdom. It will be as strong as iron which breaks everything into pieces. Like iron, that kingdom will destroy the other kingdoms. ⁴¹ In your dream, you saw that the statue's feet and toes had parts of clay and parts of iron. This shows that this kingdom will not be united as one. Some parts will be strong, like iron. The iron that you saw shows that strength. ⁴² But the iron parts of the statue were mixed with clay parts. This shows that the fourth kingdom will be strong in some parts and weak in other parts. ⁴³ You saw iron and clay that were mixed together. The two parts of that kingdom will try to become united by marriage. But that will not help them to stay together as one. Iron cannot mix properly with clay.

⁴⁴ During the time when those kings rule, the God of heaven will begin a new kingdom. That kingdom will continue for ever. No other people will ever have power over it. It will break up all those other kingdoms and it will destroy them. And it will continue for ever. ⁴⁵ You saw the stone that came from the mountain. It was not a human hand that cut it out. That stone broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold into pieces.

In your dream, King Nebuchadnezzar, the great God has shown you what will happen in future years. I have told you the dream, and I have told you what it means. You can be sure that all this is true.’

The king thanks Daniel

⁴⁶ Then King Nebuchadnezzar bent down with his face towards the ground. He gave honour to Daniel. He commanded his servants to offer sacrifices and to burn incense to praise Daniel. ⁴⁷ The king said to Daniel, ‘It is true that your God rules all other gods. He rules over kings and he explains secret things. I know this because you were able to explain this dream to me.’

⁴⁸ Then the king made Daniel an important officer. He also gave Daniel many valuable gifts. He gave Daniel authority to rule over the whole region of Babylon. Daniel also became the most important officer with authority over all the wise men in Babylon.

⁴⁹ Daniel asked the king to give important jobs to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So the king gave them authority over the region of Babylon. But Daniel himself stayed in the king's palace.

The Holy Spirit and false spirits

4 My friends, do not believe everyone who says that they speak God's message. There are many false prophets who are travelling around everywhere. They say that they have a message from God's Spirit, but the message comes from a false spirit. So check each message carefully to see if it is really from God.

² How do you know whether a person has God's Spirit in him? He must agree that Jesus is God's Messiah who was born as a human baby. If someone says that, then he has God's Spirit. ³ But if someone does not agree to say that about Jesus, he does not have God's Spirit. That person has a spirit that comes from the enemy of Christ. You have heard that this enemy of Christ would come among us. Now this spirit is already here in the world.

⁴ My little children, you belong to God. You have won against those people with a false message. You have been able to do that because God's Holy Spirit is in you. He is more powerful than the spirit that belongs to this world. ⁵ Those false prophets belong to this world. Their message comes from the ideas of people of this world. So the people of this world believe what they teach. ⁶ But we belong to God. Everyone who knows God believes our message. But anyone who does not belong to God does not believe it.

So that is how we know if someone's message comes from God's Spirit or not. God's Spirit brings us a true message, but false spirits tell lies.^[a]

Love each other because God loved us

⁷ My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. ⁹ This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. ¹⁰ This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.

¹¹ My friends, this shows how much God has loved us. So we should also love one another.

¹² Nobody has ever seen God. But, if we love each other, it shows that God lives in us. As a result, we can love people completely, in the same way that God loves us. ¹³ God has given us his Holy Spirit to live in us. Because of this, we know that we live together with God. And we know that he lives with us. ¹⁴ God the Father sent his Son to come into the world. God sent him to save the people of the world from their sins. We apostles have seen that this is true. So now we are telling people about it.

¹⁵ If anyone says clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person. And that person lives together with God. ¹⁶ So we know the kind of love that God has for us. We believe that God has put that love in us. God's nature is love. So, if someone continues to love other people, he is living together with God. And God lives in him. ¹⁷ That is how we are able to love other people completely. Then, we will not be afraid on the day when God will judge all people. We can be sure that God will not punish us. We know this because we have lived in this world in the way that Jesus lived.

¹⁸ If we really love God, we will not be afraid of him. We cannot love him completely and also be afraid. We would only be afraid of God if we thought that he would punish us. So, if someone is afraid that God will punish them, it shows that they do not completely know God's love.

¹⁹ We are able to love God and other people because God loved us first. ²⁰ Someone may say, ‘I love God.’ But if he says that and he hates another Christian, he is telling a lie. He sees other believers but he does not love them. So he surely cannot love God that he has not seen. ²¹ This is the command that God has given us. He has told us that anyone who loves him should love other Christians too.^[b]