In the third year when Jehoiakim was king over the land of Judah, the king called Nebuchadnezzar came from Babylon and captured the Lord’s city of Jerusalem.

He took away lots of the gold and silver stuff out of the Lord’s house and carried it away to the land of Shinar and put it in the house of his god, a bad one, just a statue.

They also took away the beautiful and smart children from the families of Jerusalem to be with Nebuchadnezzar in his palace.

The king gave them food to come from his table, the same food the king ate, and they were to be taught all the ways of this other country, Babylon.

With these beautiful children were ones called Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah but the king changed their names to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Daniel wanted in his heart to not turn away from the ways of the Lord God of Israel so he set it in his mind not to do the ways of this other country

or eat the food that was killed to the bad ones or drink wine.

The Lord made the prince in charge over the beautiful children to like Daniel a lot and for Daniel to be his favorite.

But when this prince brought the food to Daniel, Daniel didn’t want to eat it. Daniel asked the prince, Can we please just eat vegetables and drink water? The prince said, Then you won’t look as good as the other beautiful children and the king will kill me.

Daniel said, Can we do a test and see how we look? Give us only vegetables and water for ten days and see if we look ok. So the prince agreed and just brought Daniel and his 3 friends vegetables and water for ten days.

At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his friends looked way better than the other beautiful children so the prince let them always just eat vegetables and drink water instead of wine.

The Lord God gave these four children special help to be smarter and know more than the rest of the children who were captured. And the Lord gave Daniel special smartness in knowing how to tell what dreams and visions mean.

After 3 years the children were brought in front of the king for him to test them. Daniel and his 3 friends were ten times better than everyone, even the king’s special helpers in Babylon. Daniel lived there in Babylon through the ruling of four different kings of this land.

Then king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams in his second year and it made him upset when he woke up. So he called all his special men who help him and said, I dreamed and dream and it upset me, but I don’t remember what it is.

Tell me the dream and what it means and I will give you lots of gold and presents. The king’s helpers said, Tell us the dream and then we will tell you what it means.

The king said, No, you are trying to trick me because you don’t know. Tell me or I’ll kill all of you. The helpers said, There is no king in the world who asks such hard things from his helpers.

No one could tell the king the dream so the soldiers went out to kill all the king’s smart helpers.

When they came to kill Daniel and his friends, Daniel asked, Why are you going to kill all of us? Wait a little longer and I will tell the king what His dream means.

So Daniel was given the time he asked for and went to pray with his three friends and to ask the God of heaven what was the king’s dream.

So Daniel and his three friends prayed to the Lord their God. Then, at night, the Lord showed Daniel in a vision what the dream was and what it meant.

Daniel and his friends thanked and loved the Lord for telling them the answer. Daniel said, Very happy is the God of heaven for always and always because He is the smartest and knows everything, He changes summer to winter and takes kings down and sets up kings.

He makes smart ones smart and strong ones strong. He knows all the secret things. He knows what is in the darkness but light lives with Him.

Then Daniel went in and told the king his dream and the vision. He said, The secret the king wants to know can’t be told by anyone in this world but there is a God in heaven who shows secret things and makes known to you what you dreamed.

O king, you saw a great and tall statue that was very bright and awesome. The head was made of gold and the chest and arms were made of silver, the tummy tops of the legs were made of brass, the rest of the legs were of iron, and the feet were partly iron and part made of clay.

You kept looking at the statue until a stone was cut without hands that came and smashed the feet of iron and clay to such small pieces that the wind blew them away.

Then the stone turned into a great big mountain that filled the whole world. By this dream, the Lord, the God of heaven, has shown you what the kingdoms of the world will be.

You are the first kingdom over the whole world, the head of gold, then the next kingdom won’t be as good as you. It’s the silver one. Then comes the brass one and then the iron one. The iron one will be very strong and terrible, but then later, partly strong and partly weak in ten parts.

In the days of the last kings, the God of heaven will set up one kingdom over the whole world that will last forever and never stop. It will take all these other kingdoms and make them part of it.

This is what will happen in the world. Nothing can stop it.

Nebuchadnezzar bowed down at Daniel’s feet and then told everyone to hold Daniel high in their heart. The king said, It is true, your God is a God over all the gods and a Lord over all other lords and one who shows secret things since He could show this secret.

Then the king made Daniel very great in his kingdom and gave him many presents and put him in charge over all the land of Babylon. Then Daniel asked the king to make his three friends Daniel’s helpers in ruling over all Babylon but Daniel sat with the king each day while the king was doing his king stuff.