Daniel was still a teenager when Nebuchadnezzar brought him to Babylon in chains. He and three companions from the royal family of Judah—Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—were given Babylonian names, Babylonian education, and food from the king's own table. Daniel refused the food. He asked their guardian to let them eat only vegetables and water for ten days as a test. After ten days, the Jewish captives looked healthier and stronger than everyone eating royal meals.
That was just the beginning. Josephus records that Daniel became "very busy about the interpretation of dreams, and God manifested himself to him." When Nebuchadnezzar had a second dream—this time about a great tree cut down, its stump left in the field among wild beasts—none of the Babylonian wise men could interpret it. Daniel alone told the king the truth: the tree was Nebuchadnezzar himself, and he would lose his throne, live among animals in the wilderness for seven years, and only be restored when he acknowledged that God rules over all kingdoms.
It happened exactly as Daniel predicted. The most powerful king on earth was reduced to living like a beast. After seven years, Nebuchadnezzar prayed and was restored to his throne.
Generations later, King Belshazzar hosted a great feast using the sacred gold and silver vessels looted from the Temple in Jerusalem. In the middle of the banquet, a disembodied hand appeared and wrote on the wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. The king was terrified. None of his wise men could read the script. They called for Daniel, now an old man. He read the writing without hesitation: God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. You have been weighed and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. That very night, Belshazzar was killed and Darius the Mede took the kingdom (Daniel 5:30).