Daniel דניאל

Daniel was taken to Babylon in the first exile of 3319, still a youth, together with Chananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Trained for court service, they refused the king's food and asked for vegetables and water—and proved healthier than the rest.

His gift is the reading of dreams and visions. He interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue of four metals—the four kingdoms, a framework that shaped the Jewish view of history—and was able to tell the king what he had dreamed, though the dream was forgotten. He read the words that blazed on the wall at Belshazzar's feast: "mene, mene, tekel, upharsin"—and Babylon fell that night.

Under the Persians, jealous officials obtained a decree that for thirty days one might pray only to the king. Daniel, knowing of it, opened his windows towards Jerusalem "as he had done before" and prayed three times a day. Thrown into the lions' den, he came out unharmed.

His book is the only one in Scripture that openly counts years to redemption.