The First Exile to Babylon: Daniel and His Companions
Nebuchadnezzar carried off some of the Temple vessels and a group of selected youths of royal blood. Among them were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
The first blow was not destruction but a selection. Nebuchadnezzar took some of the vessels of the House of God to the treasury of his god in Shinar, and ordered his chief officer to bring youths of royal seed, "without blemish, of good appearance, skilled in all wisdom," to be taught Chaldean letters and presented to the king after three years. Four from Judah were among them, renamed: Daniel became Belteshazzar; Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah became Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego.
The first thing they did was refuse the royal table. Daniel asked for a ten-day test on grains and water; afterwards they looked healthier than all who ate the king's food.
Then Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a colossal statue — head of gold, chest of silver, belly of bronze, legs of iron, feet of iron and clay — and demanded that his wise men tell him the dream itself, not only its meaning. Daniel asked for a night, prayed with his companions, and the secret was revealed: the four parts are four kingdoms that follow one another, and a stone hewn "without hands" shatters them all. That vision became the frame of the Jewish reckoning of the four exiles. Later the three companions refused to bow to a golden image and came out of the furnace without a hair singed.