2 Kings 24:2-3

24:2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. ¹  24:3 Just as the Lord had announced, he rejected Judah because of all the sins which Manasseh had committed. ² 

2 Kings 24:12-16

24:12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered ³  to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, ⁴  took Jehoiachin ⁵  prisoner. 24:13 Nebuchadnezzar ⁶  took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned. 24:14 He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land. 24:15 He deported Jehoiachin from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the king’s mother and wives, his eunuchs, and the high-ranking officials of the land. ⁷  24:16 The king of Babylon deported to Babylon all the soldiers (there were 7,000), as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers. This included all the best warriors. ⁸ 

Daniel 1:1-3

Daniel Finds Favor in Babylon

1:1 In the third ⁹  year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar ¹⁰  of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem ¹¹  and laid it under siege. ¹²  1:2 Now the Lord ¹³  delivered ¹⁴  King Jehoiakim of Judah into his power, ¹⁵  along with some of the vessels ¹⁶  of the temple of God. ¹⁷  He brought them to the land of Babylonia ¹⁸  to the temple of his god ¹⁹  and put ²⁰  the vessels in the treasury of his god.

1:3 The king commanded ²¹  Ashpenaz, ²²  who was in charge of his court officials, ²³  to choose ²⁴  some of the Israelites who were of royal and noble descent ²⁵  –

¹ tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”

² tn Heb “Certainly according to the word of the Lord this happened against Judah, to remove [them] from his face because of the sins of Manasseh according to all which he did.”

³ tn Heb “came out.”

⁴ sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597 b.c.

⁵ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “and he deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king and the wives of the king and his eunuchs and the mighty of the land he led into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”

⁸ tn Heb “the entire [group], mighty men, doers of war.”

⁹ sn The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim would be ca. 605 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been a teenager. The reference to Jehoiakim’s third year poses a serious crux interpretum, since elsewhere these events are linked to his fourth year (Jer 25:1; cf. 2 Kgs 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5-8). Apparently Daniel is following an accession year chronology, whereby the first partial year of a king’s reign was reckoned as the accession year rather than as the first year of his reign. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is following a nonaccession year chronology, whereby the accession year is reckoned as the first year of the king’s reign. In that case, the conflict is only superficial. Most modern scholars, however, have concluded that Daniel is historically inaccurate here.

¹⁰ sn King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from ca. 605-562 B.C.

¹¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹² sn This attack culminated in the first of three major deportations of Jews to Babylon. The second one occurred in 597 B.C. and included among many other Jewish captives the prophet Ezekiel. The third deportation occurred in 586 B.C., at which time the temple and the city of Jerusalem were thoroughly destroyed.

¹³ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

¹⁴ tn Heb “gave.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “hand,” which is often used idiomatically for one’s power and authority. See BDB 390 s.v. יָד 2.

¹⁶ tn Or “utensils”; or “articles.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “house of God.”

¹⁸ sn The land of Babylonia (Heb “the land of Shinar”) is another name for Sumer and Akkad, where Babylon was located (cf. Gen 10:10; 11:2; 14:1, 9; Josh 7:21; Isa 11:11; Zech 5:11).

¹⁹ tn Or “gods” (NCV, NRSV, TEV; also later in this verse). The Hebrew term can be used as a numerical plural for many gods or as a plural of majesty for one particular god. Since Nebuchadnezzar was a polytheist, it is not clear if the reference here is to many gods or one particular deity. The plural of majesty, while normally used for Israel’s God, is occasionally used of foreign gods (cf. BDB 43 s.v. אֱלֹהִים 1, 2). See Judg 11:24 (of the Moabite god Chemosh); 1 Sam 5:7 (of the Philistine god Dagon); 1 Kgs 11:33 (of the Canaanite goddess Astarte, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Milcom); 2 Kgs 19:37 (of the Assyrian god Nisroch). Since gods normally had their own individual temples, Dan 1:2 probably refers to a particular deity, perhaps Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon, or Marduk’s son Nabu, after whom Nebuchadnezzar was named. The name Nebuchadnezzar means “Nabu has protected the son who will inherit” (HALOT 660 s.v. נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּר). For a discussion of how temples functioned in Babylonian religion see H. Ringgren, Religions of the Ancient Near East, 77-81.

²⁰ tn Heb “brought.” Though the Hebrew verb “brought” is repeated in this verse, the translation uses “brought…put” for stylistic variation.

²¹ tn Or “gave orders to.” Heb “said to.”

²² sn It is possible that the word Ashpenaz is not a proper name at all, but a general term for “innkeeper.” See J. J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia), 127, n. 9. However, the ancient versions understand the term to be a name, and the present translation (along with most English versions) understands the word in this way.

²³ sn The word court official (Hebrew saris) need not mean “eunuch” in a technical sense (see Gen 37:36, where the term refers to Potiphar, who had a wife), although in the case of the book of Daniel there was in Jewish literature a common tradition to that effect. On the OT usage of this word see HALOT 769-70 s.v. סָרֹיס.

²⁴ tn Heb “bring.”

²⁵ tn Heb “and from the seed of royalty and from the nobles.”