Daniel (Greek)

No. 15 Daniel (Greek) 5:18-24
The book of Daniel is set among the Jewish exiles in Babylon. This is the scene that gave us the phrase the writing on the wall: the feast of King Belshazzar. During a drunken banquet the king sends for the...
No. 41 Daniel (Greek) 2:1-6
Daniel and three other young Judeans have been taken to Babylon and trained for royal service. In this chapter Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that leaves him badly shaken, and he summons the whole professional...
No. 69 Daniel (Greek) 13:47-54
This is from the story of Susanna, one of the Greek additions to Daniel kept in the Catholic Bible. Susanna, a married woman of good standing in the Jewish community in Babylon, is bathing in her garden when...
No. 70 Daniel (Greek) 6:6-12
Daniel has served three successive regimes in Babylon and risen to the top of the administration under Darius. His colleagues resent him, and this passage is how they engineer his fall. They can find no...
No. 222 Daniel (Greek) 11:14-19
Daniel 11 is one long, unusually detailed forecast of the wars between two Greek dynasties that carved up Alexander's empire and fought for generations over the land in between. The king of the south is...
No. 231 Daniel (Greek) 13:1-6
Susanna's story is one of the Greek additions to the book of Daniel, and this passage is only the opening scene, before anything has gone wrong. It sets its stage carefully, the way a story does when it wants...
No. 252 Daniel (Greek) 4:28-32
Nebuchadnezzar sits at the very top of the world, king of Babylon at the height of its glory, and this passage catches him at the peak of his satisfaction with himself. He is walking on the flat roof of his...
No. 258 Daniel (Greek) 10:7-11
This is the start of Daniel's last and longest vision, and it opens not with information but with collapse. He is standing by the Tigris when something overwhelming appears, and the first thing the passage...
No. 385 Daniel (Greek) 1:1-5
The book of Daniel opens with a conquest, but the interesting part is what Babylon does with its captives. After Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, he does not simply enslave the young men he carries off. He runs...
No. 406 Daniel (Greek) 9:7-11
This is part of Daniel's great prayer of confession, and its structure is worth studying, because it is a model of what honest confession actually sounds like. Daniel sorts out precisely what belongs to whom....
No. 409 Daniel (Greek) 4:1-8
This is the opening of a remarkable chapter, and the remarkable thing is who is speaking. It is Nebuchadnezzar, the most feared emperor of his age, the proud king of Babylon, and he has written a public...
No. 449 Daniel (Greek) 13:60-64
This is the triumphant end of the story of Susanna. She was a faithful woman who had been cornered by two respected elders and given a vile choice: submit to them, or be falsely accused of adultery and put to...
No. 594 Daniel (Greek) 14:28-32
This is from the story of Bel and the Dragon, in the Greek additions to Daniel. Daniel has exposed and destroyed the idols of Babylon, and the enraged crowd forces the king to hand him over, thrown into the...
No. 643 Daniel (Greek) 3:51-57
This is one of the most extraordinary songs in Scripture, and where it is sung is the whole point. Three young men have refused to bow to the king's golden image and have been thrown, bound, into a furnace...
No. 648 Daniel (Greek) 4:23-27
Daniel is interpreting a troubling dream for King Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest ruler of his age. The dream is a warning: the great tree will be cut down, and the king will be driven from human company to live...
No. 652 Daniel (Greek) 2:7-11
The book of Daniel is set in the exile, when Babylon has carried Judah off and a few young Judeans serve in the king's court. In this chapter Nebuchadnezzar has had a dream that will not let him rest, and he...
No. 690 Daniel (Greek) 2:24-28
This is the turn in the story begun a few reflections back, where Babylon's wise men told the king that no one could recover a forgotten dream except gods who do not live among men. Nebuchadnezzar had ordered...
No. 787 Daniel (Greek) 6:24-28
Daniel has come up out of the lions' den untouched, having spent the night among lions because he would not stop praying at his open window when a law forbade it. Now the aftermath unfolds. The men who had...
No. 793 Daniel (Greek) 7:6-10
Daniel's night vision parades a series of beasts up out of a churning sea, each one a brutal empire. Here comes the third, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and then the fourth, which Daniel can hardly...
No. 798 Daniel (Greek) 7:23-28
Daniel has seen his terrifying vision of the fourth beast and its boastful little horn, and now an angel explains it to him. The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will devour the earth; the horn is a king...
No. 882 Daniel (Greek) 7:1-5
This is the turn in the book of Daniel from court stories to visions. In Belshazzar's first year, Daniel dreams of four winds churning the great sea and four great beasts rising out of it, each different: the...
No. 893 Daniel (Greek) 5:7-12
This is Belshazzar's feast, the night the writing appears on the wall. The terrified king calls in all his enchanters and wise men and promises purple robes, a gold chain, and third place in the kingdom to...
No. 942 Daniel (Greek) 7:17-22
The angel is interpreting Daniel's frightening vision of the four beasts. The beasts, he explains, are four kings or kingdoms that rise out of the earth, but the interpretation immediately jumps to the...
No. 945 Daniel (Greek) 3:90-97
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have been thrown into the blazing furnace for refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. Now the king, watching, leaps up astonished: did we not throw three men in? But...
No. 956 Daniel (Greek) 2:12-16
Nebuchadnezzar has had a dream that troubles him, and he makes an impossible demand: his wise men must not only interpret the dream but first tell him what he dreamed, without being told. When they cannot, he...
No. 1078 Daniel (Greek) 11:7-13
This chapter of Daniel is one of the detailed predictive passages in the Bible, a long, tangled account of wars between the king of the north and the king of the south, powers that pushed and pulled over the...
No. 1086 Daniel (Greek) 14:38-42
This is from the Greek additions to Daniel. Daniel has been thrown into a lions' den for a second time, and God sends the prophet Habakkuk, miraculously carried from Judea by an angel, to bring him food....
No. 1090 Daniel (Greek) 3:7-12
Nebuchadnezzar has set up a giant golden image and decreed that at the sound of the music, everyone must fall down and worship it or be thrown into the fiery furnace. So when the music plays, all the peoples...
No. 1132 Daniel (Greek) 3:13-18
Nebuchadnezzar, enraged, gives Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego one last chance: bow to the golden image when the music plays, or be thrown into the furnace, and who is the god who can deliver you from my hand?...
No. 1211 Daniel (Greek) 8:9-13
Daniel sees a vision of a little horn, understood to point to a tyrant who would arise, that grows great, exalts itself even against the host of heaven, and does terrible things: it takes away the daily...
No. 1224 Daniel (Greek) 14:6-12
This is from Bel and the Dragon, among the Greek additions to Daniel. The Persian king challenges Daniel: is not Bel a living god? Look how much he eats and drinks every day. Daniel laughs and tells the king...
No. 1317 Daniel (Greek) 11:20-24
This is part of a long, detailed prophecy of rising and falling kings. One ruler who sends out a tax collector to maintain the kingdom's glory is destroyed within a few days, not in anger or battle but...
No. 1343 Daniel (Greek) 13:22-27
Susanna, a godly married woman, has been cornered in her garden by two respected elders who have lusted after her and now threaten her: submit to us, or we will testify that we caught you with a young man, a...
No. 1407 Daniel (Greek) 2:17-23
King Nebuchadnezzar has demanded that his wise men tell him both his dream and its meaning, on pain of death, and Daniel and his companions are under the sentence with the rest. Daniel goes home and tells his...
No. 1411 Daniel (Greek) 13:7-14
Two elders, respected judges in the community, have both become inflamed with lust for Susanna, a godly married woman they see walking each day in her garden. The text describes exactly how their sin took...
No. 1414 Daniel (Greek) 10:12-21
An angelic messenger comes to Daniel, who has been mourning and praying for three weeks, and tells him something remarkable. Do not be afraid, Daniel; from the first day that you set your heart to understand...
No. 1421 Daniel (Greek) 11:25-30
This part of the long prophecy describes two kings at war, the king of the north and the king of the south, with their vast armies and shifting fortunes. In the middle of the account of battle and betrayal...
No. 1561 Daniel (Greek) 6:1-5
Under Darius, Daniel is set among the top officials of the kingdom, and he so distinguishes himself by his ability and integrity that the king plans to set him over the whole realm. The other officials,...
No. 1582 Daniel (Greek) 3:74-89
This is part of the Song of the Three Young Men, sung, in the Greek text of Daniel, by the three thrown into the fiery furnace and preserved. It is a great summons to all creation to praise God. Let the earth...
No. 1609 Daniel (Greek) 8:19-27
Daniel is given a vision of coming empires and rulers, symbolized by a ram and a goat, and of a fierce king who would arise, grow strong, destroy many, exalt himself, and even set himself against the Prince of...
No. 1694 Daniel (Greek) 10:1-6
In the third year of Cyrus, a true revelation comes to Daniel, concerning a great conflict. But before the vision, there is a season of seeking. For three full weeks Daniel mourns; he eats no rich food, no...
No. 1731 Daniel (Greek) 3:46-50
The three young men have been thrown into the blazing furnace, heated so fiercely with pitch and tinder that its flames leap up and kill the men who stoke it. But into that furnace the angel of the Lord comes...
No. 1753 Daniel (Greek) 13:28-35
The two wicked elders, whose advances the faithful Susanna had refused, now bring their false accusation before the assembly to have her put to death. They send for her, and she comes with her family. The...
No. 1787 Daniel (Greek) 13:55-59
Susanna has been condemned on the word of two respected elders, and as she is led to death, God stirs up the young Daniel to intervene. Daniel separates the two accusers and questions each alone. Under which...
No. 1845 Daniel (Greek) 3:1-6
King Nebuchadnezzar sets up an enormous golden image and summons all the officials of the province to its dedication. Then the herald proclaims the command: when you hear the music, every people, nation, and...
No. 1894 Daniel (Greek) 1:17-21
Daniel and his three companions, faithful young exiles who had refused to defile themselves, are given something by God: to these four youths God gave knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and to...
No. 1975 Daniel (Greek) 11:1-6
The angel shows Daniel the truth of things to come: kings will arise in Persia, one growing strong through his riches; then a great king will rule with wide dominion, only to have his kingdom broken and...
No. 1976 Daniel (Greek) 13:41-46
The assembly, believing the false testimony of the two elders, condemns Susanna to death. As she is led out to die, with every human hope gone, she cries out to God: O eternal God, you know the secrets and...
No. 2037 Daniel (Greek) 12:7-13
At the close of Daniel's visions, he hears things he cannot understand about the time of the end, and asks, my lord, what will be the outcome of these things? He is told that the words are sealed until the...
No. 2174 Daniel (Greek) 9:17-27
As Daniel pours out a prayer of confession for his people, pleading not on the ground of their righteousness but of God's great mercy, an answer comes with startling speed. While he is still speaking, praying...
No. 2216 Daniel (Greek) 14:23-27
In Babylon there was a great dragon that the people worshiped as a living god, and the king challenged Daniel: this one is no lifeless image of bronze; he lives, he eats and drinks; you cannot deny he is a...
No. 2448 Daniel (Greek) 6:13-18
Daniel's rivals have trapped him with a decree forbidding prayer to anyone but the king, and now they report him: he still makes his petition three times a day, just as before. The king, who admires Daniel,...
No. 2451 Daniel (Greek) 4:17-22
Nebuchadnezzar, at the height of his power, has dreamed of an enormous tree, its top in the sky, feeding and sheltering the whole earth, and then cut down. He calls Daniel to interpret. The message behind the...
No. 2470 Daniel (Greek) 6:19-23
At first light the king hurries to the lions' den, dreading what he will find, and calls out in a troubled voice: Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God been able to deliver you? And out of the pit...
No. 2869 Daniel (Greek) 14:33-37
This little scene comes from the Greek portions of Daniel. Daniel is shut in the lions' den, and God provides for him in a strange and almost playful way. Far away in Judea, the prophet Habakkuk has cooked a...
No. 3009 Daniel (Greek) 3:19-23
Nebuchadnezzar is enraged that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will not worship his golden image. His face distorts with fury, and he orders the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, has the three men...
No. 3041 Daniel (Greek) 3:24-39
In the middle of the fiery furnace, one of the three young men, Azariah, stands and prays aloud, and his prayer is remarkable. He blesses God and declares him righteous in all he has done: your judgments are...
No. 3076 Daniel (Greek) 9:12-16
This is part of Daniel's great prayer of confession. He acknowledges that God has confirmed his word by bringing calamity on Jerusalem, exactly as the law had warned, and that even so the people had not...
No. 3103 Daniel (Greek) 2:44-49
Daniel interprets the king's dream of a great statue. In the days of those kings, he says, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, a stone cut from a mountain without human hands,...
No. 3108 Daniel (Greek) 3:58-73
This is the song of the three young men in the fiery furnace, and it is a summons to all creation to praise. All you works of the Lord, bless the Lord! Heavens, angels, waters, sun and moon, stars, rain and...
No. 3295 Daniel (Greek) 5:25-31
Daniel reads the mysterious writing on the wall and interprets it for the proud king Belshazzar. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom and brought it to an end. TEKEL: you have been weighed in the balances and...
No. 3417 Daniel (Greek) 13:15-21
Two respected elders, corrupt in secret, corner Susanna alone in her garden and give her an evil choice: submit to them, or they will accuse her falsely of adultery, a charge that could cost her life. It is a...
No. 3420 Daniel (Greek) 2:36-43
Daniel interprets the king's dream of a great statue, its head of gold, chest of silver, and so on down to feet of iron mixed with clay, as a succession of kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar's own realm is the head of...
No. 3484 Daniel (Greek) 11:31-35
In a dark time of persecution, when the sanctuary is profaned and the abomination set up, Daniel's vision draws a sharp contrast. Some are corrupted by flattery, seduced into abandoning the covenant. But the...
No. 3490 Daniel (Greek) 14:18-22
This story shows Daniel exposing a religious fraud. The king believes the idol Bel is alive because the food set before it disappears each night; his priests have convinced him that the god eats it. But Daniel...
No. 3494 Daniel (Greek) 8:1-8
Daniel sees a vision of a ram and a goat, later revealed to represent the empires of Media-Persia and Greece. What is striking in the imagery is the repeated theme of self-exaltation and its sudden end. The...
No. 3497 Daniel (Greek) 1:6-10
Taken as a captive youth into a pagan court, given a new name and a foreign education, Daniel makes a quiet but firm decision: he resolved in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's rich...
No. 3506 Daniel (Greek) 5:1-6
At a drunken feast, King Belshazzar commits a deliberate act of sacrilege. He calls for the sacred vessels taken from God's temple in Jerusalem and drinks from them, he and his lords and wives, while praising...
No. 3589 Daniel (Greek) 3:40-45
From within the fiery furnace, Azariah prays a prayer of remarkable faith and humility. With the temple destroyed and no sacrifice possible, he offers what he still can: let our sacrifice be a contrite heart...
No. 3743 Daniel (Greek) 2:29-35
Daniel interprets the king's dream of a great statue made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay, representing a succession of earthly kingdoms, each giving way to the next. Then a stone, cut out by no human...
No. 3791 Daniel (Greek) 5:13-17
Brought before King Belshazzar to interpret the mysterious writing on the wall, Daniel is offered rich rewards: purple robes, a gold chain, the third place in the kingdom. But before he says a word of...
No. 3828 Daniel (Greek) 9:1-6
Daniel, reading the prophet Jeremiah, understands that the seventy years of Jerusalem's desolation are nearing their end. And what does this knowledge move him to do? Not to sit back and wait passively for the...
No. 3918 Daniel (Greek) 11:36-45
This prophecy describes a king who does as he pleases, exalting himself above every god, even speaking astonishing things against the God of gods. He magnifies himself above all, honors force and fortresses as...
No. 4041 Daniel (Greek) 8:14-18
Daniel receives a vision so overwhelming that when the angel Gabriel comes to explain it, Daniel is frightened and falls on his face; and as Gabriel speaks, Daniel sinks into a deep, faint-like sleep, his face...
No. 4064 Daniel (Greek) 4:9-16
King Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree, immense, reaching to the sky, seen to the ends of the earth, giving shade and food to all. It is a picture of his own greatness and dominion. But then a heavenly...
No. 4065 Daniel (Greek) 14:13-17
In this story, King Cyrus believes that the idol Bel is a living god, because every night the food set before it disappears, as though the idol had eaten it. But Daniel knows better, and he devises a simple...
No. 4149 Daniel (Greek) 14:1-5
Living in the court of the Persian king, Daniel is asked why he does not worship the idol Bel, which the king honors with lavish daily offerings. Daniel's answer is a clear and bold confession: I do not revere...
No. 4187 Daniel (Greek) 7:11-16
In Daniel's night vision, after the great beasts, the earthly empires, have had their turn, he sees a figure of glory: one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven, presented before the Ancient of...
No. 4188 Daniel (Greek) 13:36-40
In the story of Susanna, two respected elders, having failed to force themselves on a virtuous woman, take their revenge by accusing her falsely of the very sin they had attempted. This passage records their...
No. 4252 Daniel (Greek) 12:1-6
In this vision of the end, Daniel is told of a coming resurrection: many who sleep in the dust will awake, some to everlasting life. And of those who will shine, he says something striking: those who are wise...
No. 4294 Daniel (Greek) 1:11-16
Taken captive to Babylon and enrolled in the king's service, Daniel and his friends are assigned a daily portion of the king's rich food and wine. But Daniel resolves not to defile himself with it, and rather...
No. 4311 Daniel (Greek) 4:33-37
Nebuchadnezzar, the proud king who had exalted himself, is humbled by God, driven from his throne to live like a beast until he acknowledges heaven's rule. When his sanity returns, he lifts his eyes to heaven...