We use this phrase "handwriting on the wall" to mean that someone sees that something bad is about to happen or something good is about to end. Daniel was able to tell the king that this meant that he was about to be killed and another king would take his place. We get the English saying, "He saw the handwriting on the wall" from another story in Chapter 5 where the king was having a party and a hand appeared and wrote some strange words on the wall. Daniel said that God had "shut the mouth of the lions". Another story is about Daniel being put into a den of lions because he would not stop praying to his God, but the hungry lions did not eat him.
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When they would not obey, God saved them by doing miracles The two most well known of these stories are when three of Daniel's friends are put in a hot furnace, but are unharmed when a forth man appears to help them. They were told to stop worshiping their God and instead follow the gods of Babylon or the king.
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Chapters 1-6 tell stories about Daniel and his three friends who were taken from the land of Israel to Babylon. The book was probably completed shortly after Cyrus captured Babylon in 539. Jesus warned his disciples about coming events when he talked about " 'the abomination that causes desolation', spoken of through the prophet Daniel". The book says that Daniel is its writer in several places, such as 9:2 and 10:2.