Daniel 2

That would have been in about 603 BC. Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from 605-562 BC. Babylon’s former king, Nabopolassar, died in 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar was commander of the army at the time. He had just crushed the existence out of the Assyrian Empire in the Battle of Carchemish. In that battle, a coalition army of Babylonians and Medes (from what is now northern Iraq) destroyed the remnants of the Assyrian army, which had been on the run, to north of Lebanon. Egypt came to reinforce the Assyrians, but much of their army died in the battle. Survivors retreated to Egypt, which lost its swagger and commanding influence in the region.

Many people in ancient times—Jews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, and others—seemed to believe that dreams were clues to the future. Many taught that God or gods often communicated to people in dreams. Prophets sometimes called vivid dreams “visions of the night.” Dream interpreters even wrote handbooks about how to interpret dreams. Parts of one Egyptian dream book from the 1200’s BC, roughly the time some scholars say Moses lived, showed up in the cemetery at Deir el-Medina. That’s at Thebes, a little more than 300 miles (480 km) upriver from Cairo, as the crow flies along the Nile. Written on papyrus, it lists bad dreams (written in red ink) and good dreams. Example of a bad dream: bed catches on fire. It means you’re driving your wife away. Good dream: burial of an old man. It means you’re coming into money. Or, perhaps, sheep—possibly from inheritance.

From this point until the end of chapter seven, the Book of Daniel is written in Aramaic, the international language of the region. It’s a Semitic language that looks and sounds a lot like Hebrew, language of the Jewish people. Both share the same alphabet. Jesus sometimes spoke Aramaic. It remained common among the Jews, as a remnant of their history of exile in Babylon.

Scholars present theories about which three kingdoms Daniel is talking about, represented by the silver, bronze, and iron. Bible writers never identify them. Who the kings are and when their kingdoms come don’t seem to be the point. Perhaps one point is that God is in charge. Kingdoms will come and go, until they don’t. When that happens, God’s kingdom will be the one and only. This isn’t just another replacement empire, under some world leader. It’s represented by rock not touched by human hands, which brought down the huge statue. To some, that suggests either a spiritual kingdom of the soul or perhaps a supernatural physical kingdom on earth. Whatever it is, Daniel says its coming and God will make it happen (verse 45).

Scholars can only guess what kingdoms Daniel is talking about. Daniel himself may not have known. But common guesses are the silver represented Medes from what is now northern Iran, bronze represented Persians from southern Iran, and iron represented Greece. Alexander the Great’s Greek empire swallowed up what are now parts of Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. When he died in 323 BC at age 32, four of his generals divided the kingdom. Some guesses weave the Roman Empire into the mix. About seven centuries after Alexander, in AD 395, Rome split into the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. The Western Roman Empire collapsed about a century later, in AD 476. The Eastern Roman Empire fell in 1453, to the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire.

From what is now Iraq, a 4,000-year-old prophecy—about 1,500 years before Daniel—talks about the rise and fall of several kings, and about a “forever kingdom.” Babylon’s last king, Nabonidus (ruled from 556-439 BC), prayed his kingdom would last forever; it lasted 17 years, until Cyrus the Great of Persia arrived. The prophecy is preserved on a busted clay tablet. It’s called the Uruk Prophecy because it was discovered among the ruins of a Sumerian magician in the southern Iraq town of Uruk, now Warka. That’s about 40 miles (65 km) north of Abraham’s hometown of Ur and about 110 miles (180 km) south of Babylon’s ruins.

These are the Hebrew names of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.