Prophet living at the time of Exile and Return
Daniel
A young man of Judah taken to Babylon with other nobles after Nebuchadnezzar’s first attack on Jerusalem, and renamed Belteshazzar (Daniel 1:1–7). He “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself” with the king’s food, and God gave him and his three friends wisdom (Daniel 1:8–20). He told and explained Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great statue, and later Belshazzar’s writing on the wall (Daniel 2; 5), and served under Babylonian and Persian kings.
When his enemies had a decree passed against prayer, he went to his house, where his windows were open toward Jerusalem, and prayed three times a day as before; he was thrown to the lions, and God shut their mouths (Daniel 6:10–23). Studying Jeremiah’s seventy years, he prayed for his people (Daniel 9:1–19), and his visions look ahead to the kingdoms of the world and to the Son of Man (Daniel 2; 7–12). Ezekiel names him with Noah and Job as a righteous man (Ezekiel 14:14), and Jesus refers to the abomination of desolation spoken of through Daniel the prophet (Matthew 24:15).