Daniel 1:1-2, History of Daniel’s Coming to Babylon

The book of Daniel the prophet begins by giving the historical setting and the reason for Daniel’s and his friends’ situation in Babylon. It is because of the judgment of God on Judah and the nearing exile of all Judah from the land, that Daniel has landed in this foreign country.

¹ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

 Jehoiakim was the son of Josiah, king of Judah. Jehoiakim was Eliakim until his name was changed at his being appointed king of Judah by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt in place of his younger brother. Israel had become a vassal state of Egypt, which was fighting for its life in alliance with Assyria against Babylon. But Babylon defeated Egypt at Carchemish in 605 B.C.E. and then came to Jerusalem and defeated Judah.

² And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.

In the sovereign purposes of Yahweh (who is called here Adonai, Lord, the use of His name, Yahweh, only found in Daniel 9) He allowed Judah to fall to Babylon at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar took vessels of precious metal from the Temple for the wealth of them and as a symbol of the defeat of Judah’s god by Babylon’s god, Marduk:

The patron deity of Babylon and head of its pantheon was Marduk. He was the son of Enki, one of the ancient triad of Mesopotamian gods…Nabopolassar was a devotee of Nabu, Marduk’s son, as the naming of his son indicates. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have made Marduk his personal god since most of his inscriptions invoke him. Neduchadnezzar, continuing work begun by Nabopolassar, restored the ancient ziggurat, or stepped temple-tower, of Babylon, named Etemenanki (“the building which is the foundation of heaven and earth”) and the associated temple of Marduk, called Esagila (“the temple that raises its head”). [Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary]

He brought them back to Babylon, here called “the land of Shinar” to remind us of Babylon’s ancient connection to the city of Babel with its worship tower (Genesis 11).

The dating of this siege of Jerusalem in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign seems to contradict the date given by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:1; 46:2) as the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s rule. It is likely, though, that Daniel’s dating was following the “Babylonian ‘accession year’ system of dating, whereas Jeremiah follows the different Egyptian system (Jehoiakim was enthroned as an Egyptian vassal)” [Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary].