Daniel and his friends
1King Nebuchadnezzar from the land of Babylon and his soldiers came to Jerusalem. They besieged Jerusalem in the 3rd year after Jehoiakim had become king_of_Judah. 2The Lord helped Nebuchadnezzar to defeat the Israelites. Nebuchadnezzar defeated King Jehoiakim of Judah and he took a lot of the things that were in the temple. Nebuchadnezzar took everything to the land of Babylon, to the temple of his god, and he put it in the store rooms of his temple.
3Aspenas was the manager of the people who worked in King Nebuchadnezzar's house. The king told Aspenas to bring a few of the young Israelite men to work for him, young men from the family of the king_of_Israel, and sons of important people. 4These young men had to be healthy and good-looking and clever. They had to be wise and strong so that they could work in the king's palace. But first they had to learn to speak the language of the people of Babylon, and to write it. 5They had to learn for 3 years and then they had to come and work for the king. In those 3 years they had to eat only from the king's food and drink only his wine.
6Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were 4 of these young men who came from the land_of_Judah. 7Aspenas gave them other names. He named Daniel Belteshazzar, he named Hananiah Shadrach, he named Mishael Meshach and he named Azariah Abednego.
8Daniel decided not to eat the king's food or to drink his wine, because if he did that, he would become impure. He asked Aspenas if he could eat other food, not the king's food, because he did not want to become impure. 9Aspenas liked Daniel and he felt sorry for him because God had worked in Aspenas' heart and He made Aspenas feel sorry for Daniel. 10But Aspenas said to Daniel: ‘I am afraid of the king. I work for him and he told me what you must eat and drink. If he sees that you are not looking as good as the other young men who are as old as you, he will kill me and that will be your fault.’
11Aspenas then told another official to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Daniel went and he talked to that official. 12He said: ‘Please test our plan for 10 days. Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13Then you can see how we look and how the other young men look who have eaten the king's food. Then you can decide what you want to do with us.’
14The official did what Daniel and his friends had asked. He tested them like that for 10 days. 15After the 10 days, they looked better and stronger than the other young men who had eaten the king's food. 16Then the official did not give them any of the king's food and wine anymore. He gave them only vegetables. 17God made those 4 young men very clever and wise. They knew about everything and Daniel could also tell people what it meant when they had dreams or visions.
18The king told his people to bring the young men after 3 years and Aspenas brought the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. 19The king talked to them and he saw that the other young men were not as clever and wise as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Then they started to work for the king. 20Sometimes the king asked them: ‘What do you think I should do?’ Their answers were 10 times better than the answers of all the other wise men in the land.
21Daniel worked for King Nebuchadnezzar until the first year after Cyrus had become king.
