Bible Verses About Babylon: Treatment of the Jews in

In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Y'hoyakhin king of Y'hudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Eveel-M'rodakh began his reign as king of Bavel; and in his first year he commuted the sentence of Y'hoyakhin king of Y'hudah and released him from prison.

He treated him with kindness and gave him a throne higher than those of the other kings there with him in Bavel.

So Y'hoyakhin no longer had to wear prison clothes; moreover, he was provided with food as long as he lived;

and he was granted a daily allowance by the king to spend on his other needs for as long as he lived.

The king ordered Ashp'naz, the eunuch serving as his chief officer, to bring into the palace from the people of Isra'el some of royal or noble descent.

They were to be boys without physical defect, handsome in appearance, versed in all kinds of wisdom, quick to learn, discerning, and having the capacity to serve in the king's palace; and he was to teach them the language and literature of the Kasdim.

The king assigned them a daily portion of his own food and the wine he drank, and they were to be cared for in this way for three years. At the end of this time they were to become the king's attendants.

Among these, from the people of Y'hudah, were Dani'el, Hananyah, Misha'el and 'Azaryah.

The chief officer gave them other names - to Dani'el he gave the name Belt'shatzar; to Hananyah, Shadrakh; to Misha'el, Meishakh; and to 'Azaryah, 'Aved-N'go.