Chapter One

1–7. The taking of Daniel and his friends into captivity in Babylon. 8–17. Their life and education at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. 18–21. The king’s testing of the wisdom of his friends.

Daniel 1:1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The first historical event from the life of the Prophet Daniel noted in the Bible—his taking into the Babylonian captivity (verses 3–6)—coincides in time with the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar “in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah.” Found in all ancient translations of the book of Daniel, this date conflicts with the accounts of the Prophet Jeremiah. The latter knows nothing of the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar either in the third year of Jehoiakim or even in the fourth. His prophetic speech marked by this year speaks of the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar into Judea as an event only yet to come (Jer 25:1). It marks the beginning of the 70-year captivity (verses 11–12); consequently, it is the first in time of the Chaldean incursion into Judea; there was no earlier one (before the 4th year of Jehoiakim). The same conclusion is reached by comparing verses 15–26 of the same 25th chapter of the Prophet Jeremiah with chapter 46. The subjection to Nebuchadnezzar, together with the Jews, of other peoples, beginning with the Egyptians, mentioned in the first passage, will occur, according to the indication of the second, after the battle of Carchemish. And since this last falls on the fourth year of the reign of the Jewish king Jehoiakim (Jer 46:2), it is evident that until this time Judea and Jerusalem did not experience an invasion by the Babylonians. One of the most reliable means for removing the noted discrepancy is considered by exegetes to be a somewhat different translation of the 1st verse compared to the accepted one. Namely, based on the fact that the Hebrew verb “ba,” rendered in the present case by the phrase “came” (“in the third year... came Nebuchadnezzar”), also means “set out, begin, undertake a journey” (Jonah 1:3; cf. Gen 37:10; Exod 6:11; Exod 9:1; Exod 10:1; Num 32:6 and so on), the whole passage is read thus: “in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, set out (from Babylon) Nebuchadnezzar toward Jerusalem and besieged it.” The prophet Daniel notes, thus, only the beginning of the campaign and then points to its result, without determining either the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s arrival at Jerusalem or the length and conclusion of the siege of the city. According to the view of other exegetes (Rashi, Saadias), by the third year of Jehoiakim is meant the third year from his rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar (2 Sam 24:2). But such an understanding is incompatible with the biblical expression: “in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim,”—the third year from his accession to the throne, not from the time of an attempt to restore independence.

Daniel 1:2. And the Lord gave into his hand Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and part of the vessels of the house of God, and he carried them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought these vessels into the treasure house of his god. According to the view of the ancients, including the Assyro-Babylonians, the might of a particular people was in full correspondence with the power of its national god (2 Sam 18:33-35), so that the defeat of one people by another was considered the defeat of its god and victory over it by the god of the victors (Jer 46:14-15). As a sign of this, the Assyro-Babylonian conquerors, together with military booty, seized the statues of the gods of the conquered peoples, brought them as a gift to their national deities—placed them as trophies in the temples of these latter. “I, says, for example, Sargon in one of his inscriptions, took the city of Musasir, carried away with me the god Halti with other gods and a great multitude of their sacred vessels.” “The inhabitants of Bit-Yanina and their gods,” recounts Sennacherib, “I led away with me.” “I,” remarks Ashurbanipal, “returned to the Babylonian city of Uruk the image of the goddess Nana, carried away from there as military trophy to Susa by the Elamite king Kubur-Nanhundi.” With the same considerations Nebuchadnezzar was guided in sending to Shinar (the general name of the regions of the Babylonian kingdom), in the absence of images of the Most High, the vessels of the Jerusalem kingdom and placing them in the treasury located at the temple of his god Bel (cf. Ezra 1:7; Ezra 5:14). According to the biblical account, Nebuchadnezzar did not participate directly in delivering the vessels to Babylon: he “sent” them. And this small detail is confirmed in every way by the account of the Chaldean historian Berossus (end of 4th—beginning of 3rd century BC) of the campaign of Nebuchadnezzar against the Egyptian pharaoh Necho, during which Jerusalem was conquered. Having defeated Necho in the battle of Carchemish and then taking from him after that Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, recounts Berossus, heard of the death of his father Nabopolassar. On account of this, he ordered his generals to set out for home with all the spoil, with the army and captives from the Jews, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Egyptians, while he himself with a small detachment hastened to Babylon by the shortest route through the desert and, upon arriving in the capital, ascended the throne. (Josephus. Antiquities. Part 2, pp. 162–163).

Daniel 1:3. And the king said to Ashpenaz, the chief of his eunuchs, that he should bring Daniel 1:4. Young men in whom there was no physical defect, beautiful in appearance, and capable of all science, and knowing science, and sensible and suitable to serve in the chambers of the king, and that he should teach them the books and language of the Chaldeans. The order of Nebuchadnezzar to educate at the royal court some well-born Jewish youth captives is not an exceptional occurrence in the history of Assyro-Babylonian rulers. Upon conquest of a country, they often took small boys of noble birth as captives, gave them excellent education at court alongside the children of the first officials of state, and later provided them not only with appropriate positions in state service but also made them rulers of entire regions. “The Babylonian Beliba, brought up like a little puppy in my palace,” says Sennacherib in one inscription, “I appointed ruler over them in Sumir in Akkad.” For the education of such children, special schools were established at the courts of Assyrian and Babylonian kings; regarding their curriculum one can judge from the recently discovered library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. Its tablets contain guides to alphabet, grammar, history, a Chaldean-Turanian dictionary, a dictionary of ancient inscriptions, a dictionary of Assyrian synonyms and entire phrases; records of legal content, information about the epithets and attributes of various gods, about the principal temples; fragments of mythological content and so on. The sum total of all this knowledge and information fully corresponds to the remark in the book of the Prophet Daniel that he was instructed in “the books and language of the Chaldeans”—the language of Babylonian science. The execution of the royal order is entrusted to “the chief of the eunuchs” Ashpenaz, not eunuchs in the literal sense, that is, castrated men, but high court officials (Gen 37:36 cf. 1 Sam 22:9; 2 Sam 20:18; 2 Sam 25:19; Isa 39:7). He had authority over all who lived and served at the royal court; it was he who selected from the well-born captives the young men who would be future court officials—his immediate subordinates.

Daniel 1:5. And the king appointed for them a daily portion of the king’s food and wine, and commanded to educate them for three years, after which they were to appear before the king. Nebuchadnezzar’s directive is fully in accordance with the Eastern custom by which all courtiers received food from the royal table. Thus, at the Persian court, according to Ctesias, dinner was prepared daily for 15,000 people (cf. 2 Sam 25:29-30; Jer 52:33-34).

Daniel 1:6. Among them were of the sons of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. From the third verse it follows with certainty that the Prophet Daniel was descended from the tribe of Judah and belonged either to the royal or to a noble princely house, but to which exactly, in the absence of information, is unknown. Josephus considers him a relative of the Jewish king Zedekiah; some Christian writers count him among the descendants of David (Symeon Metaphrastes), others (Epiphanius) among one of the most noble families of Jewish nobility. Similarly unclear is the information about the genealogy of his friends.

Daniel 1:7. And the chief of the eunuchs renamed them—Daniel he called Belshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. Daniel 1:4. Daniel and his friends are being educated as future officials at the royal court (“to serve in the chambers of the king”—Dan. 1:4). In view of this, they receive new names: it would be strange to leave future Babylonian officials with their former Hebrew names—they are given Babylonian names. Composed from the titles of the principal Babylonian deities: Belshazzar (Belteshna king) “May Bel (Bel) protect his life,” Abednego “servant, servant (of the god) Nebo,” Meshach “who is like Aku,” Shadrach “command (of the god) Aku,” they could recall the recent victory of the Babylonian gods over the Jews and their God (see the commentary on verse 2), thanks to which the change of names served, as always, as a sign of the dependence of the conquered on the conqueror (2 Sam 24:17; 2 Chr 36:4). Daniel 1:8. Daniel resolved in his heart that he would not defile himself with the food from the king’s table and the wine that the king drank; and therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Daniel’s refusal to partake of food and wine from the royal table was prompted by fear of defilement—violation of the prescriptions of the law of Moses regarding food forbidden to the Jews. The defiling foods could be the very dishes prepared from the flesh of animals and birds forbidden by Moses (Lev 11:4-19; Deut 14:7-18), and perhaps even sprinkled with the blood of sacrificial animals; the manner of their preparation (Lev 11:32-38) inconsistent with the law, and finally, the whole situation of eating food: before its receipt, idols were invoked, in honor of them sacrifices were made, during the meal hymns of praise to the gods were sung (Dan 5:4). The desire to avoid defilement could be all the stronger in Daniel since the prophets had foretold him concerning this (Hos 9:3; Ezek 4:13-14).

Daniel 1:9. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion from the chief of the eunuchs; Daniel 1:10. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel: I fear my master, the king, who himself appointed your food and drink; if he sees your faces looking thinner than the youths, your peers, then you will make my head guilty before the king. Despite all his goodwill toward Daniel, Ashpenaz does not agree to his request to change the food. He fears bringing down the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar upon himself. And this is understandable. The possible thinness of Daniel and his friends from the change in diet could provoke various unfavorable interpretations by the court official, beginning with the suggestion of careless execution of the personal royal order (“he himself appointed your food and drink”) and ending with suspicion of theft: he is taking the food appointed for the youths for himself. Josephus Flavius expresses this thought, adding to the biblical account the remark that Daniel asked Ashpenaz to take the food appointed to him for himself, and send them and his friends vegetable food.

Daniel 1:11. Then Daniel said to Melzar, whom the chief of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Daniel 1:12. “Please test your servants for ten days; let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink; Daniel 1:13. And then let our faces be seen before you and the faces of the youths who eat the king’s food; and deal with your servants according to what you see. Daniel 1:14. And he listened to them in this and tested them for ten days. Ashpenaz’s answer made it clear that in substance he was indifferent to what food Daniel and his friends would eat. He carries out the royal order only from fear of responsibility before the king and is ready to repeal it if that responsibility is removed from him. Taking advantage of this, Daniel turned to his immediate superior, Melzar, that is, the wine steward, since the Hebrew name “gamltzar” (Persian “messar” steward) with the definite article is a title of office, not a personal name. And this latter, being an official not responsible to Nebuchadnezzar for the youths, because supervision of them was entrusted to him by Ashpenaz (Dan 1:11), consents to Daniel’s wish. His yielding is also explained by the fact that the vegetable diet was at first limited to ten days—such a period during which the thinness of the youths could not be too noticeable.

Daniel 1:15. And at the end of ten days their faces appeared better and they were fuller in body than all the youths who ate the king’s food. Daniel 1:16. Then Melzar took their portion of food and the wine for their drink, and gave them vegetables. The healthy appearance of Daniel and his friends on a vegetable diet was for the steward sufficient reason not to oppose their wish throughout the remainder of their education.

Daniel 1:17. And God gave to these four youths knowledge and understanding in every book and wisdom, and Daniel also received the ability to understand and all visions and dreams. Daniel 1:18. At the end of those days, when the king commanded them to be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 1:19. And the king spoke with them, and among all the youths he found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; and they stood before the king. Daniel 1:20. And in every matter of wise understanding, about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the wise men and enchanters who were in all his kingdom. Daniel’s refusal of pagan food was a manifestation of his piety, for which he is endowed by God with more-than-human wisdom, displayed both in the assimilation of Chaldean science and in the ability to interpret dreams and visions (Dan 2:17-19). “Not Chaldean instruction,” says the blessed Theodoret, “made Daniel wise and filled him with all wisdom, but by God’s grace, having been granted understanding and wisdom of every knowledge, he proved superior to all.”

Daniel 1:21. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. The Hebrew preposition “ad” (Russian “until”) in determining a known state of a thing or person until such or such a time does not exclude the continuation of that same state beyond that time boundary, or more precisely, leaves aside the question of the further continuation or ending of that state (cf. Gen 8:7; Ps 109:1). In view of this, the present verse is not in contradiction with Dan 10:1. It states only that Daniel lived and acted at the royal court throughout the entire period of the Babylonian captivity and does not touch on his fate in subsequent time (cf. Jer 1:3 and chapters 40 and following).