28 
ISRAEL. 
nezzar, overwhelmed and astonished, blessed the “ God of the Jewsand made a decree, 
“ That every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces.” This was followed by a new 
accession of authority. “ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in 
the province of Babylon.” 1 The attempt to destroy them had thus given a new illustration 
of the power of Jehovah among the heathen, and a new protection to the captive people. 
But Nebuchadnezzar, in his unchecked fortune, and the glittering scenes around him, 
gradually forgot the supremacy of the God of the Jews, a forgetfulness which would 
naturally be followed by the oppression of his captives. A Divine dream was sent to 
remind him of the precariousness of human power. Daniel alone could give the interpreta¬ 
tion, and he declared it to be a summons to “ break off his sins by righteousness, and his 
iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.” 2 But the warning was forgotten, and within a 
twelvemonth, in the midst of a new burst of pride, at the moment of ascribing all his 
grandeur to himself, he heard his sentence from heaven; “ The kingdom is departed from 
thee.” He was exiled from the throne, in a frenzy which lasted for seven years. But this 
interregnum evidently administered to the increased protection of the Jews; a capricious 
and dangerous depository of power was deprived of all means of injury; while no successor, 
perhaps, equally dangerous, was suffered to ascend the throne. The three Jews and Daniel 
retained the virtual sovereignty of the empire; the jealousies and conspiracies of the native 
priests and princes must have been powerfully checked by the awful spectacle of their great 
king suffering before their eyes, under the declared hand of Jehovah; and the general 
feeling must have become still more impressive, when they heard him, on the first return of 
his understanding, pouring out the most boundless acknowledgment of the true God. 
“ Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the 
earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to show the signs and wonders 
that the High God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs! and how mighty 
are his wonders; his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from 
3 O O O 7 
generation to generation.” 3 
This event, which was soon followed by his death, must have placed the captives with 
powerful recommendation in the hands of his successor. And thus we find, that one of the 
first acts of Evil-Merodach, his son, was to bring the Jewish king from his dungeon, in the 
thirty-seventh year of his captivity, treat him with honour, and place him above all the 
other captive kings. 
The accession of Belshazzar, the third in descent, again obviously endangered the con¬ 
dition of the captives. The king was a tyrant and a man of blood. 4 The fame of Daniel, 
who would naturally shrink from such association, had evidently passed away. The Jewish 
governors of Babylon were perhaps dead, for their names are heard no more, and the king’s 
1 That the suggestion of erecting the idol, or, at least, of compelling homage on its dedication, was 
an intrigue to destroy the Jewish governors; is rendered the more probable by our not hearing of 
any charge against Daniel, who held no civil office, or the other Jews, among whom there must have 
been many who would have refused the homage ; and also by the king’s subsequent decree, to “ all who 
shall speak anything amiss against the God” of the three Jews. 
2 Daniel, iv. 8, &c. 3 Daniel, iv. 1, &c. 4 Xenophon, Cyrop. 1. iv. 
