Daniel and his friends taken to Babylon
Daniel 1; 2 Kings 24:1; 2 Chronicles 36:6–7; Jeremiah 25:1–11
Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and took young nobles to Babylon, including Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who resolved not to defile themselves with the king's food.
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Daniel 1:8 (World English Bible)
The young men were given Babylonian names (Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) and three years of training for royal service. Daniel asked for vegetables and water instead of the king's food, and after ten days they looked healthier than the others. God gave them wisdom beyond all the king's magicians.
Jeremiah had foretold seventy years of Babylonian rule, which Ussher counts from this deportation.
Places
Ancient witnesses outside the Bible
Historical sources, not Scripture.
- Against Apion 1.19 — Berosus on Nebuchadnezzar’s first campaign and the captives he took from the Jews
- Antiquities 10.11.1 — Berosus and Megasthenes on Nebuchadnezzar
Dating notes
Ussher dates this first deportation to 607 BC, the third or fourth year of Jehoiakim (Daniel 1:1; Jeremiah 25:1). Conventional dating, tied to the battle of Carchemish, gives 605 BC.