50 Fun Facts About Book of Daniel

Which phrase for a hidden flaw in an admired person comes from the statue in King Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2?

Feet of clay comes from the statue's weakest part: a dazzling figure of gold, silver, bronze and iron standing on a base that shatters at one blow.

According to Daniel's own account to King Darius, what kept the lions from harming him overnight in the den?

An angel shut their mouths, Daniel told the king, because he had been found innocent before God and had done Darius no wrong.

Looking into the furnace, what did Nebuchadnezzar say the fourth figure beside Daniel's friends resembled?

A son of the gods was the king's phrase for the stranger, and he noticed that all four were walking about unbound and unhurt.

Driven from his palace to live among wild animals, what did a humbled King Nebuchadnezzar eat in Daniel 4?

Grass was his food, eaten like an ox, while his body was drenched with dew until he admitted that heaven rules.

What did King Belshazzar and his guests drink from at the feast where a hand wrote on the wall in Daniel 5?

Looted temple cups of gold and silver, carried off from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, were filled while the guests praised their idols.

What simple diet did Daniel ask to be given for a ten-day test instead of the Babylonian king's rich food?

Vegetables and water left Daniel and his friends looking healthier than the youths on royal rations, so the steward kept all four on the diet.

How much hotter than usual did a furious Nebuchadnezzar order the furnace heated for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?

Seven times hotter was the order, and the men were cast in fully clothed and tightly bound.

During his madness in the wild in Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar's hair grew until it looked like what?

Eagles' feathers is the comparison, and his nails grew like birds' claws before his reason returned and he praised the Most High.

Once Daniel was lifted alive from the den, what did King Darius order done to the officials who had accused him?

Thrown to the lions with their families, the accusers were overpowered before they even reached the floor of the pit.

What happened to the soldiers who threw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into Nebuchadnezzar's overheated furnace?

The flames killed them beside the furnace because the king's command was so urgent and the fire so fierce.

What Babylonian name did the chief official at Nebuchadnezzar's court give to the young exile Daniel?

Belteshazzar was the new name, which Nebuchadnezzar later said honoured his own deity, and Daniel's friends were renamed at the same moment.

What impossible demand did Nebuchadnezzar make of Babylon's wise men before they could interpret his troubling dream?

Describe it to him first, the king insisted, reasoning that anyone able to recount the dream unaided could be trusted to explain it.

In the dream Daniel interpreted for Nebuchadnezzar, what struck the great statue and smashed it to pieces?

A stone cut out without human hands did it, then grew into a mountain that filled the whole world, a picture of a kingdom that never ends.

Which part of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream did Daniel say stood for the Babylonian king himself?

The head, made of fine gold, was Nebuchadnezzar, while the metals lower down the statue stood for the kingdoms that would follow his.

What was the signal for the crowd to bow down to the golden image Nebuchadnezzar set up in Daniel 3?

The sound of music from horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and pipe was the cue, and a herald warned that anyone left standing would burn.

In Daniel 4, what did Nebuchadnezzar dream reached the sky and fed every creature before a watcher ordered it destroyed?

A tree was the image, and Daniel had to tell the king that it stood for Nebuchadnezzar himself, about to be cut down to a stump.

How many times a day did Daniel kneel and pray at his open window, even after King Darius's decree forbade it?

Three times a day he prayed facing Jerusalem, exactly as before, and that unchanged habit is what his rivals reported to the king.

After Daniel was left in the lions' den, how did a distressed King Darius spend the night in his palace?

Fasting without sleep, Darius refused all entertainment, then hurried to the den at first light and called out to Daniel.

What happened to King Belshazzar on the very night Daniel read the writing on the palace wall?

He was slain that same night, and his kingdom passed to Darius, who was already about sixty-two years old.

Who told a terrified King Belshazzar that Daniel could read the mysterious writing on the palace wall?

The queen came into the banquet hall and reminded him that Daniel had solved riddles and dreams for Nebuchadnezzar.

In the night vision of Daniel 7, where did four great beasts, each different from the others, come up from?

The sea was whipped up by the four winds of heaven before the beasts emerged, and an interpreter later explained that they stood for four kings.

Which animal did the second beast of Daniel 7 resemble, raised up on one side with ribs between its teeth?

A bear is the image, and a voice commands it to arise and devour much flesh.

Which animal did the four-winged third beast of Daniel 7 resemble, the one to which dominion was given?

A leopard is the likeness, with a bird's wings on its back, and it is followed by a fourth beast too dreadful to compare with any animal.

By what title does Daniel 7 call the figure who takes his seat on a throne of fire as judgment begins?

Ancient of Days is the title, given to a figure robed in snow-white clothing who presides as the court sits and the books are opened.

In Daniel 7, how does the 'one like a son of man' arrive before being given a kingdom that never ends?

With the clouds of the sky he comes, and every people, nation and language is to serve him.

In Daniel 8, which pair of kingdoms does the ram with two unequal horns represent?

Media and Persia are named outright, and in the vision the horn that came up last grew the taller of the two.

Which kingdom does the swift male goat of Daniel 8 stand for, according to the vision's own interpreter?

Greece is named outright, and the large horn between the goat's eyes is called its first king, whose realm later splits into four.

Who is told by a voice from the river Ulai to make Daniel understand the vision of the ram and goat?

Gabriel comes so close that a terrified Daniel falls on his face, and he says the vision concerns the time of the end.

What did the little horn of Daniel 8 take away from the sanctuary as it grew great and cast down truth?

The daily sacrifice, the continual burnt offering, was removed and the sanctuary overthrown, prompting a holy one to ask how long the outrage would last.

According to Daniel 8, how many 'evenings and mornings' would pass before the sanctuary was cleansed?

2,300 is the figure given after one holy one asks another how long the desolation will last, and Daniel is told the vision is true but belongs to many days to come.

What was unusual about the way the male goat of Daniel 8 sped out of the west toward the ram?

It never touched the ground as it crossed the whole world, then struck the ram in fury, broke both its horns and trampled it.

In the vision of Daniel 8, in which citadel city in the province of Elam does Daniel find himself?

Susa is where the vision places him, standing beside the Ulai as a two-horned ram charges unstoppably past.

Whose prophecy about how long Jerusalem would lie in ruins was Daniel studying before his prayer in Daniel 9?

Jeremiah is the prophet named, and Daniel says he worked out the number of years 'by the books' before turning to prayer.

In Daniel 9, what signs of mourning did Daniel put on as he turned to God with prayer and petitions?

Sackcloth and ashes went with a long confession in which Daniel says 'we have sinned', counting himself among the guilty.

In Daniel 9, what span of time did a heavenly messenger say was 'decreed' for Daniel's people and holy city?

Seventy weeks were decreed to make an end of sins, atone for wrongdoing and bring in everlasting righteousness.

Which word completes Daniel's urgent plea at the close of his prayer in Daniel 9: 'Lord, hear. Lord, ___'?

Forgive is the word, and Daniel rests the appeal on God's great mercy and reputation, not on any goodness in his people.

In Daniel 10, who came to help a heavenly messenger held up for twenty-one days on the way to Daniel?

Michael, called one of the chief princes, broke the deadlock, and Daniel 12 says he will stand guard over Daniel's people in a time of trouble.

Beside which great river, called Hiddekel in older Bibles, did Daniel see a dazzling figure in Daniel 10?

The Tigris is the river, and the men with Daniel saw nothing yet ran off trembling to hide.

In Daniel 11's long war prophecy, the king of the south fights again and again with the king of where?

The north is his rival's realm, and their battles, invasions and a failed marriage alliance fill most of the chapter.

According to Daniel 12, many will awake to everlasting life or to everlasting shame from where?

The dust of the earth gives up its dead at a moment of unmatched trouble, when everyone found written in the book is delivered.

In Daniel 12, those who turn many to righteousness are promised they will shine forever like what?

The stars are the promised likeness, while the wise are said to shine like the brightness of the heavens above.

What was Daniel told to do with the words of his final vision until the time of the end?

Seal them up was the instruction, and when Daniel admitted he did not understand, he was simply told to go his way and rest.

Which phrase did Jesus quote from Daniel to warn of a coming horror 'standing in the holy place'?

Abomination of desolation echoes Daniel 11, where hostile forces profane the sanctuary and set up a thing that makes it desolate.

Which Seleucid king, a persecutor of the Jews, do most scholars see behind the 'contemptible person' of Daniel 11?

Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed Jewish rites and turned the sanctuary over to the worship of Zeus, which set off the Maccabean revolt.

Much of Daniel, from chapter 2 through chapter 7, is written not in Hebrew but in which language?

Aramaic takes over partway through Daniel 2:4, just as the court astrologers begin to speak, and Hebrew returns at chapter 8.

Which New Testament book reuses Daniel's beasts, horns and throne-room scenes in its own visions of the end?

Revelation alludes to Daniel more often, for its length, than to any other Old Testament book.

Which woman, falsely accused by two elders, is saved by young Daniel in a chapter found in Catholic Bibles?

Susanna is cleared when Daniel has the two elders questioned apart and their accounts of what they saw contradict each other.

Which word written on Belshazzar's wall did Daniel read as 'weighed in the balances and found wanting'?

TEKEL was the verdict on the king himself, and Daniel was rewarded for reading it even though he had told Belshazzar to keep his gifts.

Ships from which land sail against the invading king in Daniel 11, sending him home in a rage?

Kittim is the source of the fleet, and the humiliated king vents his fury on the holy covenant on his way back.

On which plain in the province of Babylon did Nebuchadnezzar set up his sixty-cubit golden image in Daniel 3?

Dura was the site, and officials from every province were summoned there for the image's dedication.