King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Daniel 2
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And in the second year of the reign of dreamed , wherewith his was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the , for to shew the king his . So they came and stood before the king. And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a , and was troubled to know the . Then spake the to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the , and we will shew the . The king answered and said to the , The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the , with the thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if ye shew the , and the thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great : therefore shew me the , and the thereof. They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the , and we will shew the of it. The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me. But if ye will not make known unto me the , there is but one for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the , and I shall know that ye can shew me the thereof. The answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, , nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or . And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with . For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all men of . And the went forth that men should be slain; and they sought and his fellows to be slain. Then answered with and to the captain of the king’s guard, which was gone forth to men of : 15He answered and said to the king’s captain, Why is the so hasty from the king? Then made the thing known to . Then went in, and of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the . Then went to his house, and made the thing known to , , and , his companions: That they would of the of concerning this secret; that and his fellows should not with the rest of men of . Then was the secret unto in a night . Then the of . answered and said, be the name of : for and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth unto , and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and : he knoweth what is in , and dwelleth with him. I thank thee, and thee, O thou of my fathers, who hast given me and might, and hast unto me now what we of thee: for thou hast now unto us the king’s matter. Therefore went in unto , whom the king had ordained to destroy men of : he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not men of : bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the . Then brought in before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the of Judah, that will make known unto the king the . The king answered and said to , whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the which I have seen, and the thereof? answered in the of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; But there is a in that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king what shall be in the . Thy , and the of thy head upon thy bed, are these; As for thee, O king, thy came into thy upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not to me for any that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the to the king, and that thou mightest know the of thy . Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great . This great , whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This ’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of . Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the upon his feet that were of iron and , and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the , the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the ; and we will tell the thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the of hath given thee a kingdom, , and strength, and . And wheresoever the children of men , the of the field and the fowls of the hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ , and part of iron, shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry . And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of , so shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 43And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry , they shall mingle themselves with the of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with . And in the days of these kings shall the of set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the , the silver, and the gold; the great hath to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the is certain, and the thereof sure. Then the king fell upon , and , and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. The king answered unto , and said, Of a truth it is, that your is a of gods, and a of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest this secret. Then the king made a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of , and chief of the governors over all men of . Then requested of the king, and he set , , and Abed–nego, over the affairs of the province of : but sat in the of the king.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Babylon and the exile, 612 BC to 539 BC ›
Babylon replaces Assyria, Jerusalem and its temple are destroyed in 586 BC, and the leadership of Judah lives in Mesopotamia without a king, a temple, or a country.
- Babylon
- Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilds the city on a scale meant to be seen from a distance: the Ishtar Gate in glazed blue brick, the processional way, the ziggurat, and gardens later counted among the wonders of the world. Babylonian tablets record rations issued to the captive king Jehoiachin of Judah by name, which is one of the tidier points of contact between the Bible and the archives.
- Egypt
- Briefly resurgent. Pharaoh Neco marches north, kills King Josiah at Megiddo, and installs and deposes kings in Jerusalem, until Babylon beats him decisively at Carchemish in 605 BC. Jeremiah spends his career saying that betting on Egypt is suicide, and is proved right.
- Judah
- Deported in stages, then destroyed. The temple is burned, the walls broken, and the leadership marched to Mesopotamia. What happens next is one of the strangest survivals in history: a people keeps its identity without land, king, or sanctuary, and comes out of it with its scriptures more central than before.
- Further afield
- An extraordinary century for ideas everywhere at once. Thales and the first Greek philosophers, Solon's reforms at Athens, the Buddha in India, Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, and Zoroaster in Persia all fall within a few generations of the exile.