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A Commentary on Daniel 2: Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Awesome Statue

Kuruvilla Thomas
Bangalore
Published on 16 December 2024




Daniel 2 Timeline
Fig. 1


Introduction

Through Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a fantastic statue, this prophecy charts the history of the series of dynasties through which Satan ruled the earth, extending from the time of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon up to the Beast empire at the start of the Millennial Reign. Several other prophecies in Daniel (Daniel 7,8,11&12) make similar predictions regarding Satan's empires, which are evil counters to God's righteous kingdom, Israel.



Discussion

1. The chiastic design of Daniel 2

We will use the NIV translation for this commentary. We have retranslated parts of the text.


Chiasmus 1: Nebuchadnezzar insists that his sorcerers tell him both his dream and its interpretation

1. In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. 2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, 3 he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”
4 Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”
5 The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. 6 But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”
7 Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”
8 Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided: 9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.”

Chiasmus 2: God gives Daniel the dream and its interpretation

10 The astrologers answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. 11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods whose conversation is not with men.” [a] 12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. 13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. 14 When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.
15 He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. 16 At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him. 17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19a During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision.
19b Then Daniel praised the God of heaven 20 and said: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. 21 He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. 22 He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. 23 I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.”
24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.” 25 Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.” 26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”
27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these: 29 “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

Chiasmus 3: The dream and its interpretation

31 “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. 39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.
40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. [b]
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.” 48 Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. 49 Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.

Retranslation notes for Daniel 2:
[a] vs 11 "gods whose conversation is not with men" instead of "gods, and they do not live among humans". Based in the Douay-Rheims Bible.
[b] vs 43 This verse is taken from the KJV.



2. A Commentary on Daniel 2

This prophecy is structured as a series of 3 chiasmi.

Chiasmus 1: Nebuchadnezzar insists that his sorcerers tell him both his dream and its interpretation

The passage below in vs 1-9 is arranged in the form of a two-unit chiasmus:

A1 1-3 Nebuchadnezzar tests his sorcerers by asking them about his dream
  B1 4 The sorcerers ask Nebuchadnezzar to describe the dream
    X 5-6 The sorcerers must tell Nebuchadnezzar both his dream and its meaning
  B2 7 The sorcerers ask Nebuchadnezzar to describe the dream
A2 8-9 Nebuchadnezzar tests his sorcerers by asking them about his dream


Subunit A1: Nebuchadnezzar tests his sorcerers by asking them about his dream (vs 1-3)

1 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.

Nebuchadnezzar II, whose reign began in Aug 605BC, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian empire after Nabopolassar. Nebuchadnezzar saw the troubling visions of this prophecy in the second year of his reign (c. 603BC); at the time, the prophet Daniel was in training to be a courtier at the Babylonian palace (see Dan 1:3-4).



2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, 3 he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”

The king asks his spiritual advisors to tell him the dream he had and its meaning - we believe that he remembered his dream but wanted to test his sorcerers. These sorcerers were the prophets and priests of demon gods (fallen angels) - they had limited access to knowledge from the spiritual realm through their practice of the black arts. Note that we consider the words sorcerer, magician, enchanter, astrologer, diviner and wise man to be synonymous in this context.



Subunit B1: The sorcerers ask Nebuchadnezzar to describe the dream (vs 4)

4 Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

The king's advisors asked him to describe his dream, so that they may interpret it.

( Note that the text from this verse, Dan. 2:4, to the end of Daniel 7 is in Aramaic and not Hebrew.)



Pivot X: The sorcerers must tell Nebuchadnezzar both his dream and its meaning (vs 5-6)

5 The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. 6 But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”

The Lord not only showed Nebuchadnezzar this vision (see vs 28 below), He apparently impressed upon the king the need to seek an accurate interpretation. God may have also planted the idea in the king's mind that his sorcerers must describe the dream as well as interpret it, as a way of validating the interpretation. Note that the rewards the king promised for interpreting the dream ultimately went to Daniel.



Subunit B2: The sorcerers ask Nebuchadnezzar to describe the dream (vs 7)

7 Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

The sorcerers could make up a plausible interpretation for any dream the king had, but they knew they could not guess the dream itself.



Subunit A2: Nebuchadnezzar tests his sorcerers by asking them about his dream (vs 8-9)

8 Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided: 9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.”

The advisors try to buy time, lying to the king and hoping he will be distracted by other matters, but to no avail - the king must have his dream or he will severely punish all of them. Nebuchadnezzar began to see that his advisors did not have the great spiritual power they claimed to have.



Chiasmus 2: God gives Daniel the dream and its interpretation

The passage below in vs 10-30 is arranged in the form of a two-unit chiasmus:

A1 10-14 Only God can reveal Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its interpretation
  B1 15-19a Daniel takes on the task of interpreting the dream
    X 19b-23 Daniel praises God for revealing the dream
  B2 24-26 Daniel takes on the task of interpreting the dream
A2 27-30 Only God can reveal Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its interpretation


Subunit A1: Only God can reveal Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its interpretation (vs 10-14)

10 The astrologers answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. 11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods whose conversation is not with men.”

Nebuchadnezzar's sorcerers tell him that no human can do what the king asks, and none of the gods (fallen angels) they worshipped could do so either. This dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar by God himself; only God's angels can reveal the dream to the sorcerers, and God's angels cannot be summoned through sorcery (they are "the gods whose conversation is not with men").



12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. 13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. 14 When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.

Nebuchadnezzar, enraged at the duplicity of his wise men and at their worthless advice, decided to kill all his advisors in Babylon, apparently even those in training. Since Daniel had not yet been appointed as the king's advisor, he was not aware of the king's challenge until the king's commander came to execute him.



Subunit B1: Daniel takes on the task of interpreting the dream (vs 15-19a)

15 He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. 16 At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.

Daniel learnt the reason for king's anger from Arioch the king's commander. He obtained access to Nebuchadnezzar and convinced the king to give him time to interpret the dream.



17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19a During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision.

Faced with this impossibly difficult, life-threatening challenge, Daniel and his friends immediately sought God's help. God revealed the dream and its interpretation to Daniel.



Pivot X: Daniel praises God for revealing the dream (vs 19b-23)

19b Then Daniel praised the God of heaven 20 and said:
“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his.

Daniel did not forget to thank and praise his God when the dream and its interpretation were revealed to him. For with this revelation, God had honoured Daniel and saved his life and those of his colleagues.



21a He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others.

Nebuchadnezzar's vision, as revealed to Daniel, predicts great changes in the fates of powerful dynasties, all of which is ultimately under God's control. The text, "changes times and seasons", refers to changes in the reigning regimes of nations - we believe this passage in vs. 21a is a parallelism (see also Dan. 7:25).



21b He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. 22 He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.

All the wisdom and knowledge of the truly wise ultimately comes from God; at the appropriate times God reveals the secret things - things that are hidden in "darkness" - with His "light" of revelation.



23 I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.”

Daniel was revered and had been given great power for his wisdom and knowledge (see also Dan. 1:17); he acknowledges that this wisdom comes from his God and thanks Him. In particular, Daniel thanks God for revealing the king's dream to him.



Subunit B2: Daniel takes on the task of interpreting the dream (vs 24-26)

24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.”
25 Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”
26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”

Daniel, gifted with the revelation of the dream from God, is granted an audience with the king.



Subunit A2: Only God can reveal Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its interpretation (vs 27-30)

27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28a but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.

Daniel uses this opportunity to inform Nebuchadnezzar about the greatness of the God of Israel, for God has revealed to him what none of the king's sorcerers could find out.



28b He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these: 29 “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen.

As he lay in bed, the king was wondering about the future of the world, and so God, the revealer of mysteries, showed him an overview of future events.



30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

Daniel was chosen, not because he was wiser than everyone else, but because he was in a position to explain the dream to the king, to act as an intermediary between God and the king.



Chiasmus 3: The dream and its interpretation

The passage below in vs 31-49 is arranged in the form of a two-unit chiasmus:

A1 31-35 Prologue: Nebuchadnezzar's dream
  B1 36-39 The Interpretation: The Empires that precede the Roman Empires
    X 40-43 The Interpretation: The Empires of Rome
  B2 44-45 The Interpretation: The Empire that follows the Roman Empires
A2 46-49 Epilogue: Nebuchadnezzar honours Daniel for telling him the dream


Subunit A1: Prologue: Nebuchadnezzar's dream (vs 31-35)

In this subunit Daniel describes the dream that Nebuchadnezzar saw, something that all the sorcerers said was beyond human ability.


31 “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.

The remarkable statue in its entirety represents the royal and priestly dynasties that controlled the empires through which Satan ruled the earth over millennia, from the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar's time up to the 'Babylon' and Beast Empire (Rev 13) of the period before the Millennial Reign (see appendix of our paper on Daniel 8 [1] for details on the royal Satanic bloodlines). The statue is dazzling and awesome in appearance to represent the great spiritual power of these Satanic royal bloodlines.



32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.

Each of the 4 sections of the statue, made of various materials, represents the dynastic leadership of each of the empires from which Satan rules the earth, as detailed in vs 36-43 below (see also Daniel 7).

The metals that represent each of these dynasties turn baser from head to foot, and the foot is a mixture of iron and clay - note that not only are the succeeding dynasties represented by metals of lower value, they are represented by "less important" parts of the body. What does this reduction in value/importance represent? It does not appear to be physical strength, as these kingdoms become more wealthy and powerful towards the time of the Millennial Reign. We propose instead that the value/importance of each part of the statue indicates the Satanic spiritual power of the leadership of these empires. Nebuchadnezzar and the priests that controlled Babylon were of relatively pure bloodlines from Nimrod, but the priests and leaders of the succeeding empires gradually mingled with outsiders so that by the time of the Beast, their blood had relatively little Satanic spiritual power. ( See appendix of our paper on Daniel 8 [1] for more details on the bloodlines. The mingling with outsiders was necessary, because, as the people of the bloodlines moved to new regions, they had to merge into the local aristocracy to acquire political power and they had to look like the locals; they also had to minimize the genetic problems that come from excessive inbreeding, like the Habsburg Jaw.)



34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

The rock represents the Messiah of the Millennial Reign, who is sent by God ("not by human hands"). The Messiah defeats the Beast empire ("struck the statue on its feet"), and, with it, ends Satan's control over the earth. God's royal bloodline, made up of the Messiah and his descendants, replaces the Satanic bloodline as the leadership of the world; God's bloodline grows ("became a huge mountain") and has a presence throughout the earth ("filled the whole earth"). While Satan's bloodline is represented by a statue of diminishing value/importance from head to foot, God's royal bloodline is represented by a mountain that is uniformly made of rock and spreads outward towards its base, indicating that it will retain its spiritual power and grow throughout the Millennial Reign.



Subunit B1: The Interpretation: The Empires that precede the Roman Empires (vs 36-39)

36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. 39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.

God has handed over to Satan all power over humans and over animals, and the sections of the statue represent the various dynasties (we will treat the word "kingdom" in this chapter as referring to the leadership of the kingdom, based on vs 38) through which Satan ruled the earth over the millennia:



Pivot X: The Interpretation: The Empires of Rome (vs 40-43)

40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.

The "legs of iron" represent the powerful priests and kings that controlled the Roman Empire (146BC - c.480AD). The Roman Empires dominated the world for a long time through its superior administration ("strong as iron"), however it was spiritually weaker than its predecessors ("iron" can be considered inferior to "gold, silver and bronze").



41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

The "feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay" represent the leadership of the Roman Catholic Empire ('Babylon'), which controls first the European and US Empires and then the Beast System (c.480AD-2027AD). From the time of the Roman Catholic Empire, many Satan-worshippers that are not of the bloodlines are apparently placed in positions of leadership. Many of these weak-bloodline or non-bloodline leaders (the "seed of men"/"clay") do not have much Satanic spiritual strength, and so the last empire lacks cohesiveness under stress - the children ("seed") of men do not bond well with the children of Satan. The ten toes seem to represent the ten kings of the final Beast empire (see also the beast of Dan 7:7,23-25), and they will prove particularly spiritually weak and disloyal to Satan (see Rev 17:16).



Subunit B2: The Interpretation: The Empire that follows the Roman Empires (vs 44-45)

44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

At the time of the start of the Millennial Reign, God ("not by human hands") will call out ("cut out") the Messiah ("rock") from among His leading angels (the leaders of the angels of God are the "mountain" of vs 45) to lead the New Israel of the Millennial Reign (see also Isaiah 10:22, Jer. 23:3). This Messiah will destroy the leaders of 'Babylon' and the Beast Empire (the "feet" of vs 34 and "those kings" of vs 44), so that the power of Satan's human bloodlines is ended (see Rev 18:21) - the bloodlines of the older empires will also lose their power ("a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces"). The Messiah and his descendants - God's royal and priestly bloodlines - will then rule the world (see Psalm 2:7-10). God's royal bloodline will grow to have a presence in all the earth over time (the rock will become a mountain that spreads outward towards its base - towards the latter years) and, unlike the Satanic bloodlines, its spiritual power will remain strong throughout the Millennial Reign (it will be a mountain that is uniformly made of rock, unlike the statue that has weaker materials towards its feet).



Subunit A2: Epilogue: Nebuchadnezzar honours Daniel for telling him the dream (vs 46-49)

46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”
48 Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. 49 Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.

King Nebuchadnezzar was compelled to acknowledge that the God of Israel was indeed the one true God, and that Daniel was a true prophet. He elevated Daniel to a high position after his training (see Daniel 1:18-20 - we believe Daniel 1 and 2 are partly parallel narratives). It appears that God had set up this situation partly to appoint His prophet Daniel and his friends to positions of power in Babylon, so as to protect His people, the Judahites, even as they were punished in bondage there.





References

[1] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Daniel 8