Prophet Daniel. Great Foretellers: Daniel the Prophet Prophet Daniel Life Summary

The Biblical prophet Doniel came from a royal family. His child, along with fellow Jews, was taken captive by the soldiers of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. But the fate of Daniel in captivity was quite successful. Together with other captive boys, who came from noble families, he was brought up in the royal palace. Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to be taught various sciences, including the Chaldean language, and fed from the royal table. But Daniel ate only bread and vegetables, did not eat anything that was forbidden by the law of Moses. God was merciful to Daniel and rewarded him with the ability to solve dreams.

The king of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar II (630-562 BC), was a warlike commander, from his youth he commanded troops, led them on campaigns, seized new lands, enslaved peoples. Resisting all violence, Judea one fine day refused to pay tribute to him. And then Nebuchadnezzar sent his troops to the Judean land. Around 597 B.C. e. he reached Jerusalem.

The king of Judea, Joachim, understood that he did not have enough strength to resist the invasion, and he went to Nebuchadnezzar with gifts, hoping to propitiate the conqueror. But I was wrong. The insidious Nebuchadnezzar ordered to seize Joachim and kill him. He offered to take the Jewish throne to Jeconiah, the son of Joachim, but demanded that he strictly pay tribute. He promised. Then Nebuchadnezzar selected over three thousand families of noble Jews as a pledge and took them into captivity. Among them was the lad Daniel.

Life in captivity

In captivity, he lived freely, he studied with pleasure, learned various sciences, studied the Chaldean language, tried to the best of his ability to protect his relatives, to somehow improve their life in captivity. In addition, he made attempts to explain to simple Babylonians, pagans by faith, the difference between the Jewish one God and their idol-idols, meaningless and useless. He talked about the customs of the Jews, their family ties, about their readiness to support each other in difficult moments, explained why the Jewish God is invisible, but in his deeds he looks like a person.

Prophet Daniel. Artist Michelangelo

One day Nebuchadnezzar had a strange dream that left him with an uneasy feeling. The king was scared. He summoned the wise men, Chaldeans, soothsayers and magicians and told them his dream. But pundits did not understand anything and said that for people this task is impossible. The enraged king ordered all the wise men to be executed on the spot.

Daniel understood that this execution could reflect badly on the attitude of the angry king towards the captive Jews, as well as towards him and his close friends Ananias, Azariah and Mishael. Daniel asked the bodyguards to allow him (to meet with Nebuchadnezzar. He will solve his dream. The king agreed to accept Daniel, and the bodyguards brought the young man to Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel listened to the king's dream, but also did not understand anything. He asked to give him one night to think and went to his room. All night he did not sleep, prayed, asked God for help. Not only wise men, soothsayers and magicians were in danger, but also the entire Jewish people. The king's dream was unusual, and he himself was afraid of its solution.

How was the secret of the dream revealed?

God spoke to Daniel and revealed to him the secret of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, interpreted the king's visions. Thanking God for the revelation, early in the morning Daniel went to Nebuchadnezzar. Here is how the well-known historian and writer of the Ancient World, Josephus Flavius, writes about this visit in his multi-volume work Antiquities of the Jews.

In his biblical book, the prophet Daniel U devoted much space to the reign of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and his role in the state. This V. is not accidental. Educated Daniel, who studied the Chaldean language, close to the palace, could not help but see the efforts of the king of Babylon to make his capital Babylon, like the whole country, prosperous. The king collected abundant tribute from the enslaved peoples, various gifts were brought to him, he had no shortage of gratuitous workers, his army was the strongest, and he was not afraid of enemy attacks. Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt his city as he wanted, built luxurious palaces, laid streets and dug canals, slaves irrigated the land in every possible way, planted fruit trees, by his order the famous Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, were erected.

To protect against dust storms and enemies, the king ordered to build a high stone wall around Babylon. The main gate was striking in its beauty - they were lined with bright blue and yellow tiles depicting various animals. Guards were constantly stationed near the gate - the soldiers levied tribute from visiting merchants.

During the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the famous Tower of Babel, a ziggurat, was built near the city, rising 90 meters above the ground. It was called Etemenanki, which meant a house where heaven meets earth. At the top was supposed to be a temple for religious rites.

Various enslaved peoples, including captive Jews, took part in the construction of the tower. The biblical history of this tower is known. God opposed the plan of people to raise it to the very sky. He destroyed the unfinished building with his own forces - with wind, sun and rain, and rewarded people with different languages. They stopped understanding each other and went to different countries.

Daniel predicted that Nebuchadnezzar at the end of his life would acquire a strange disease - he would be a beast. Whether his prophecy came true or not is unknown.

Construction of the Tower of Babel. Artist P. Brueghel the Elder

How Daniel figured out King Nebuchadnezzar's dream

Appearing before the king, Daniel asked Nebuchadnezzar not to consider him wiser than the court sages, Chaldeans, fortune-tellers and magicians. And he also told him that all night he prayed to his God to unravel the dream of the king, as he feared the death of the wise men, his friends and his people. The Lord was merciful and sent a warning in a dream - he introduced the future rulers. And Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream in this way: It seemed to you as if you were seeing a huge statue, the head of which was made of gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, the stomach and thighs of copper, and the knees and legs of iron. Then you saw how a stone fell from the mountain and fell on the statue, overturned it, broke it and did not leave a single part of it intact, so that gold, silver, iron and copper became finer than sand and they were scattered by a terrible whirlwind that suddenly rose everywhere, while the block of stone began to grow, and, moreover, to such an extent that the whole earth seemed to be filled with it. This is the dream you had.

Dream interpretation

Nebuchadnezzar was surprised at this explanation and bowed his head in agreement. Daniel continued: ... the golden head (statues) means you and your two predecessors on the Babylonian throne, both arms and shoulders indicate that your power will be undermined by two kings. The power of the latter will be crushed by some other ruler who will come from the west, dressed in copper weapons, and his strength, in turn, will be broken by a fourth in iron and will rule here forever, thanks to the very essence of iron, which is harder than gold, silver and copper.

Daniel also explained the appearance of a stone that broke a giant statue (which, according to the Bible, is an idol representing pagan kingdoms and beliefs) into small particles, turned it, in fact, into nothing, into dust. The statue-idol meant the kingdom, the head - the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, followed by the silver kingdom, it is lower in value, then came the copper kingdom, the third. The final kingdom will be the fourth, iron, eternal kingdom, which will crush everything. God will not hand over this kingdom to any one people he has chosen. It will be a kingdom for all, other kingdoms will be crushed. This is the main clue to sleep, its prediction.

King Nebuchadnezzar was taken aback by this detailed interpretation. He well remembered this statue-idol with a golden head and a stone rolling on it from the mountain. He bowed to Daniel and acknowledged that the God of the Jews was truly the God of gods and lord of kings.

Reconstruction of the Babylonian Gate of the goddess Ishtar in the Pergamon Museum Berlin

For such an interpretation of the dream, Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel the head of all the wise men, Chaldeans, fortune-tellers and magicians of the country of Babylon. He left him at the palace, surrounded him with honor and respect, and appointed his friends Ananias, Azariah and Misael as rulers in various parts of the country of Babylon.

According to the Bible, after the golden Babylonian kingdom came the second, lower rank, silver, its name is Median-Persian, then the time came for the third kingdom, copper, or Macedonian-Greek. And in the end came the time of the iron kingdom, the Roman. And each of these kingdoms owned Judea, tried to enslave the Jewish people.

under Roman rule

During the Roman Empire, during the reign of emperors, in particular Tiberius, in the land of Judea, Jesus Christ appeared in Bethlehem, that is, it was the very stone that destroyed all pagan religions. It is no coincidence that He was also called the Savior of the world. He brought to earth a new religion, named after Him, Christian...

Daniel in his book of prophecy foretold the long reign of the Romans. He was the first to foresee that they would come to Israel, capture and destroy Jerusalem, they would devastate, plunder and destroy the Temple of Jerusalem, located on the Temple Mount, which from the 10th century BC to the 1st century AD was the center of the religious life of the Jewish people.

These predictions, Daniel wrote, were received by him from God. He is only His servant, he wrote down and left them to his descendants for edification, so that future generations could bow before the honor that he, Daniel, was awarded by the Almighty. Thus, Daniel gave a warning to the people. But the ancient Greek Epicureans, the followers of Epicurus, who lived more than three centuries later than Daniel and formed their own philosophical worldview, did not obey him. They were not afraid of the gods, they were not afraid of death, and they considered pleasure to be the highest good. They rejected the predestination of life and assured everyone that the gods could not take care of the affairs of the world, and the universe was not ruled by a supreme and above all vicissitudes one being.

Daniel foresaw their coming. According to him, those who live without a pointer will perish. It will crash against an obstacle, like ships that, without helmsmen, perish from the force of the winds, or, like chariots without drivers, go astray.

Adoration of the shepherds. Artist J. Tintoretto

What prediction did Daniel make to King Belshazzar?

Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylonia for 43 years and died of some kind of mental illness. Daniel far outlived the king of Babylon. After Nebuchadnezzar, various kings ruled Babylonia. Seven years later, the son of Nebuchadnezzar (according to other sources, the son of King Nabonidus), the famous Belshazzar, who reigned for 17 years, sat on the throne.

During the siege of Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, Belshazzar, instead of worrying about protecting the city and starting hostilities, arranged a rich feast and ordered to bring gold and silver vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Jerusalem temple.

At that moment, a strange inscription appeared on the wall of the palace, which pretty much frightened Belshazzar and his guests. Nobody could understand anything. The summoned wise men thought and wondered, but could not understand the meaning of what was written. Then they remembered the prophet Daniel, who, even under Nebuchadnezzar, became famous for his ability to interpret dreams and various sacraments.

Mene, mene, tekel, uparsin

Daniel, brought to the king, said that Belshazzar committed a criminal act - he began to drink from the vessels of God's temple and glorified gods-idols, all kinds of idols, but did not glorify God, on whom everyone's life depends. Therefore, an inscription appeared on the wall, sent down from above: mene, mene, tekel, uparsin, which literally means numbered, weighed, divided, and stands for how the kingdom is completed, the king turned out to be frivolous, and his kingdom will be given to the Medes and Persians.

On the same night, the king of Babylonia, Belshazzar, was killed, and the conqueror Cyrus the Great began to rule the country. He freed the Jews languishing in captivity, bestowed them with rich gifts and sent them home.

So, years later, the prediction of Daniel, given by him many years ago to Nebuchadnezzar, came true.

Feast of Belshazzar. Artist J. Martin

King Darius highly appreciated the prophetic abilities of Daniel and brought him closer to himself, brought him into the palace, and began to listen to him attentively. But such an exaltation of a man from Judea did not please the courtiers. They didn't know how to get rid of him. They could not kill, only slander remained. And they began to whisper to Darius about the oddities they noticed in the behavior of the new prophet. They said that Daniel was praying to his God, his celestial being. He allegedly forgot about royal favors. He must be punished. No one should be allowed to honor their god more than the reigning Darius. Our ruler is much higher and more worthy of the Jewish God.

Daniel in the lions' den

Their words had an effect. Darius agreed with them. Indeed, who can be higher than him, the ruler and conqueror of the whole world? He decided to test Daniel's holiness. How to do it? And again the courtiers came to his aid. They prompted the real test of Daniel's faith - to throw the prophet into a den with hungry lions. May he prove his holiness there, may his God come to his aid. Everyone expected that the hungry lions would immediately pounce on the man who appeared before them and tear him to pieces. But the courtiers were wrong. Daniel was not touched by the lions. They bypassed him and did not express their dissatisfaction with anything. Daniel was safe and sound. When Darius asked Daniel how he managed to stay alive, he replied that he was saved by faith in the Lord, who sent him an angel-protector, and the lions calmed down and did not touch him. So Daniel once again proved his holiness and the protection of the Almighty to him.

Prophet Daniel lived to an advanced age, according to some sources, up to 90 years. He was buried, according to legend, in the city of Susa, today in Iran. Although his graves also exist in Samarkand and Kirkuk.

Daniel in the pit. Artist P. P. Rubens

Darius I the Great (VI-V centuries BC). The image on the vase

Tomb of Prophet Daniel in Susa

He came from a noble Jewish family. The young man was taken captive in 605. In his youth, he was distinguished not only by piety, but also by wisdom. Nebuchadnezzar ordered to select for his court several Jewish youths, distinguished by nobility, education and beauty. The choice fell on Daniel and his three friends: Ananias, Azariah and Mishael. The king assigned them daily food from the royal table and ordered them to be brought up for three years. They all changed their name. Daniel became known as Belshazzar. He, together with his friends, asked for permission not to eat luxurious dishes from the royal table and not to drink wine, but to be content with simple food from plants and drink only water. The Lord helped them in their feat of strict abstinence. Despite the strict fast, their faces were more beautiful, and their bodies were fuller than those of those youths who ate royal dishes.

Daniel soon rose to prominence in court because he was able to interpret the disturbing dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. Later he held high government positions under the Chaldean and Persian kings.

The book of the Prophet Daniel tells of an amazing prayer feat of three youths Ananias, Azariah and Mishael. They refused to worship the golden idol and with great hope offered up a prayer to God. By order of the angry king, they were thrown into a red-hot furnace. But the Angel of the Lord went down into the furnace, and the fire did not harm them. Then three pious youths glorified God: Blessed are You, O Lord God of our fathers, and praised and exalted forever, and blessed is the name of Your glory, holy and praiseworthy and exalted forever(Dan 3:52).

In the New Testament Church, the prayer song of the three youths is used in hymnography. Irmos of the 7th and 8th odes of the canon speak briefly about their miraculous escape from the flames.

The prophet Daniel himself, slandered under King Darius the Mede, was thrown into a den with lions. But God sent His Angel, who blocked the mouth of the lions. The animals did not hurt him. Daniel was one of those righteous people who by faith they conquered kingdoms, they did righteousness, they received promises, they stopped the mouths of lions(Heb 11:33).

The prophet Ezekiel places Daniel next to Noah and Job for righteousness (see: Ezekiel 14, 14). According to legend, the prophet died in extreme old age far from his fatherland.

The book of the prophet Daniel is permeated messianic ideas. He accurately indicates the time of the coming into the world of the Savior of the world ( anointed was the Holy of Holies[Dan 9, 24]), His atoning sacrifice ( Christ will be put to death). Name often applied to Himself by the Savior Son of Man goes back to the book of Daniel (see: Dan 7, 13).

This book is unique in the abundance of predictions of the most important historical events. The change of earthly kingdoms is not a random sequence, but an eschatological perspective that leads to the victory of the Kingdom of God. The book of the Prophet Daniel vividly depicts coming judgment with which time will end and God's eternity will begin (see Dan 7:9-14).

Daniel(Heb., Daniel, other Greek, Daniel, Arab., Daniel) is a biblical prophet (related to the so-called "great prophets").

A descendant of a noble Jewish family, as a teenager, together with his fellow tribesmen, he fell into Babylonian captivity after the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. In Babylon, he received a Chaldean education and was called to serve at court. According to the Bible, Daniel had the gift from God to understand and interpret dreams, which made him famous at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, and after the fall of Babylon - at the court of Cyrus and Darius. Among the famous episodes of Daniel's story are his miraculous salvation in the lions' den and the interpretation of the words "mene, mene, tekel, uparsin", inscribed with a mysterious hand on the wall during Belshazzar's feast.

At the same time, the author of the Book of Daniel demonstrates rather vague knowledge about the realities of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, and his prophecies were considered as the latest in the 3rd century by the Neoplatonist Porfiry. By now, there is a broad scholarly consensus around the claim that the Book of Daniel was written much later than the Babylonian captivity (perhaps in Palestine during Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Maccabees c. apocalyptic literature, and there is no reliable evidence for the existence of the prophet himself.

In the Old Testament, the name Daniel is mentioned several more times, including in the appeal of the book of the prophet Ezekiel to the king of Tyre: “you are wiser than Daniel” (28:3). During the excavations of the city of Ugarit, a poem of the 14th century BC was discovered. e., the main character of which - a wise and fair judge who stood up for widows and orphans - bears the name Dani-Il, referring to the veneration of the god El / Il by him.

Bible Book of Daniel

The Five Kingdoms of Daniel and Their Interpretation

Daniel explained to Nebuchadnezzar a dream about an image (Dan. 2:31) broken by a stone that fell from a mountain (the image is the pagan kingdoms that replace each other, the stone is the Messiah, and the mountain is the Eternal Kingdom of God) (see Colossus on feet of clay).

According to Ephraim the Syrian, the golden head is the kingdom of Babylon. Silver chest and arms - the kingdom of the Medes. The womb and thighs of copper are the kingdom of Persia. Iron legs - the kingdom of Alexander the Great. Legs of iron and clay - ten kings who rebelled after Alexander. Another lesser kingdom, that is, the kingdom of the Medes, will rise up and crush the kingdom of Babylon. The kingdom of Cyrus, king of Persia, will rule over the whole earth. The toes of iron and clay are the ten kings who rose up in the kingdom of Greece, of which some are strong and strong like iron, while others are small and powerless. And although they will enter into alliances among themselves, they will not have unanimity and love;

John Chrysostom adds that the words "mixed through the seed of man" (Dan. 2:43) mean that among these kings many will not be of the royal family.

“And in the days of those kingdoms, the God of Heaven will raise up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be transferred to another people” (Dan. 2, 45) - according to the interpretation of Ephraim the Syrian: “This kingdom will not be given to the Jewish people. Although it was mysteriously and foreordained in the Maccabees, who humiliated the kingdom of the Greeks; but in reality this prophecy was fulfilled in our Lord.” “The stone was torn away from the mountain not with hands” (Dan. 2, 45) - this is our Lord, Who was born in humiliation and cut off from the mountain like a stone, that is, he came from the tribe of Abraham. Ephraim also writes that the Mountain also means “the holy Virgin, from Whom a stone was cut off without hands, that is, unskillfully.”

Prophet Daniel is one of the amazing Old Testament prophets, called in the Bible "the man of desires." He so pleased God with his righteous life, burning spirit and humility that the Lord gave him the mind to see the secret meaning of the events of the present, past and future. The Prophet Daniel was vouchsafed the revelation of God about the coming Savior, the fate of the people of Israel, and about the last times — that later the Lord revealed only to His beloved disciple John the Theologian.

For most of his life, the holy prophet spent in Babylonian captivity, where he became famous for his wisdom and insight, and was close to the rulers. Daniel was subjected to many trials, but God always helped His chosen one, so that even hungry ferocious lions could not do him any harm.

In 2015, the publishing house of the Sretensky Monastery published the life of St. John of Damascus, narrated for children by Irina Sudakova: “John, the Saint from Damascus.”

We bring to your attention the first chapter from the Life of the Prophet Daniel.

Mysterious words: mene, tekel, fares

When Nebuchadnezzar died, the kingdom of Babylon began to lose its power. In a short time, four kings were replaced in it. The last Babylonian ruler from the descendants of Nebuchadnezzar was Belshazzar. He was a convinced pagan and, moreover, a very frivolous person. He attached no importance to the miracles performed by Nebuchadnezzar. Belshazzar surrounded himself with nobles who pleased him in everything. And Daniel by that time had been removed from the royal court.

Once Belshazzar arranged a big feast and had fun with his nobles. During the feast, the king remembered the precious vessels brought to Babylon from Judea by Nebuchadnezzar. These were sacred vessels from the Jerusalem Temple. They were intended only for worship. But Belshazzar ordered these vessels to be brought and wine to be poured into them, and together with his guests began to drink from them. At the same time, the king praised his idols.

Such blasphemy was followed by God's judgment: a hand suddenly appeared in the air, writing some incomprehensible words on the wall. Belshazzar changed his face, trembled with horror and shouted that magicians, sages and fortune-tellers should be brought to him immediately. But none of those who appeared could even read the words inscribed on the wall.

Then the queen, the mother of Belshazzar, entered the banquet hall.

“There is a man in your kingdom named Daniel. It has the spirit of the Holy God,” she said. - At the court of Nebuchadnezzar, he was the chief sage. Daniel can interpret the mysterious and explain dreams. Order to call him, and he will reveal to you the meaning of these mysterious words.

When Daniel was introduced to Belshazzar, the king addressed the prophet with the following speech:

“I heard about you, Daniel, that you can solve mysteries. If you can read and explain what is written here, then you will be given a purple robe, and a golden chain will be around your neck, and you will be the third ruler in my kingdom.

Daniel answered the king:

- Let your gifts remain with you, and give honor to another, and what is written, I will read to you and explain the meaning. Because you offended the Almighty, these words are inscribed: mene, tekel, fares. “Me” means that God calculated the time of your kingdom and put an end to it. Tekel weighed you and found you very light. Peres means God divided your kingdom and gave it to the Medes and Persians.

The words of the prophet came true very quickly. On the same night, the troops of the Medes and Persians, led by the Persian king Cyrus, invaded the city of Babylon and captured it. Belshazzar was killed. So the "golden" Babylonian kingdom fell. His place was taken by the kingdom of Medo-Persia - "silver", as Daniel predicted to King Nebuchadnezzar.

Promised land

in the royal school

The extraordinary dream of the king

Friends of the prophet Daniel in the furnace of Babylon

Mysterious words: mene, tekel, fares

Prophet Daniel in the den with wild lions

Revelations of God

Prophet Daniel came from a noble family. During the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 606 BC, young Daniel, along with other Jews, was taken into captivity in Babylon. There, 15-year-old Daniel and other most capable young men were assigned to a school to prepare for service at the royal court.

Three of his friends studied with Daniel: Ananias, Mishael and Azariah. For several years they learned the local language and various Chaldean sciences. Upon entering the school, these three young men were renamed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. However, with the adoption of pagan names, the young men did not betray the faith of their fathers. Fearing to be defiled by pagan food, they begged their educator to give them food not from the royal table, sprinkled with blood sacrificed to idols, but simple, vegetable. The teacher agreed, on the condition that after ten days of eating plant foods, he would check their health and well-being. At the end of the trial period, these young men turned out to be healthier than others who ate meat from the royal table, and the teacher allowed them to eat food at their discretion. For devotion to the true faith, the Lord rewarded the young men with success in the sciences, and the Babylonian king, who was present at the exam, found that they were smarter than his Babylonian wise men.

After finishing his studies, Daniel with three friends was appointed to serve at the royal court and remained here in the rank of court dignitary throughout the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and his five successors. After the conquest of Babylon, he became an adviser to the kings Darius of the Media and Cyrus of Persia.

God endowed Daniel with the ability to understand the meaning of visions and dreams, and he showed this ability by explaining to Nebuchadnezzar two of his dreams, which greatly confused the king (Dan. 1 and 4). In the first dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw a huge and terrible idol made of four metals. The stone that rolled down from the mountain smashed the idol to dust and itself grew into a big mountain. Daniel explained to the king that the image symbolized the four pagan kingdoms that were to succeed each other, from Babylonian to Roman. The mysterious stone that crushed the idol symbolized the Messiah, and the formed mountain - His eternal Kingdom (Church).

In his book (bearing his name), the prophet Daniel tells about the feat of his three friends, who refused to worship the golden idol (Marduk), for which, by order of King Nebuchadnezzar, they were thrown into a red-hot furnace. But an angel of God kept them safe in the fire.

Details about the activities of the prophet Daniel during the 7 years of the reign of the three successors of Nebuchadnezzar have not been preserved. The murderer of Lavosoardach, Nabodid, made his son Belshazzar his co-ruler. In the first year of Belshazzar, Daniel had a vision of the four kingdoms, after which he saw God in the form of the "Ancient of Days" and the "Son of Man" coming to him, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In his book, the prophet Daniel recorded several prophetic visions relating to the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. In terms of its content, his book has much in common with the Revelation of the Evangelist John the Theologian, placed at the very end of the Bible.

Under Daniel, during the reign of Belshazzar, the Median king Darius conquered Babylon (539 BC). Then Belshazzar died, as Daniel predicted to him, explaining the meaning of the inscription on the wall, made by a mysterious hand: “Me tekel uparsin” (you are insignificant, and the Medes and Persians will divide your kingdom) (Dan. 5, 25).

Under Darius the Media, Daniel took an important government post. Envying Daniel, the pagan nobles slandered him before Darius and ensured that Daniel was thrown to be eaten by lions. But God kept his prophet intact. Having examined the matter, Darius ordered Daniel's slanderers to be subjected to the same execution, and the lions instantly tore them to pieces. A little later, Daniel received a revelation about 70 weeks, which indicates the time of the first coming of the Messiah and the foundation of his Kingdom (Church) (See Dan. 9).

In the reign of Cyrus, Daniel remained in the same court rank. Not without his participation in 536, King Cyrus issued a decree on the release of Jews from captivity. According to legend, the prophet Daniel showed Cyrus a prediction about him in the book of the prophet Isaiah, who lived two hundred years before (Is. 44, 28-45; 13). Struck by this prophecy, the king recognized the power of Jehovah over himself and commanded the Jews to build a temple in Jerusalem in his honor (Ezra 1). Under the same king, Daniel was again saved from death, which threatened him for killing the dragon, deified by the pagans.

In the third year of the reign of Cyrus in Babylon, Daniel was honored to receive a revelation about the future fate of the people of God and the four pagan empires (Dan. 10-12). Daniel's predictions about the persecution of the faith refer to the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes and, at the same time, to the coming of the Antichrist. Nothing is known about the subsequent fate of the prophet Daniel, except that he died at a ripe old age. His prophetic book consists of 14 chapters. The Lord Jesus Christ, in his conversations with the Jews, twice referred to the prophecies of Daniel.