A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Daniel 1
Daniel 1 is the opening chapter of the twenty-seventh book of the Bible. The 21-verse chapter introduces Daniel and three friends, Jewish nobles taken captive to Babylon in 605 BC, and tells how they refuse the king's food and gain favor in the Babylonian court.
The chapter opens in the third year of King Jehoiakim of Judah, when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieges Jerusalem and carries off some of the temple vessels along with selected captives. Among the captives are young men from royal and noble families, chosen for their good looks, intelligence, and aptitude for learning.
Four of them are named: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They are given new Babylonian names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They are enrolled in a three-year training program to serve in the king's court, and they are assigned a daily ration of the king's rich food and wine.
Daniel resolves not to defile himself with the royal food, probably because it has been offered to idols or violates Jewish dietary laws. He asks the chief official for permission to abstain. The official is sympathetic but worried, so Daniel proposes a ten-day test: only vegetables and water for the four of them, then a comparison with the others. After ten days, Daniel and his friends look healthier than the rest.
The four are allowed to continue on the simpler diet. God gives them knowledge and understanding, and Daniel additionally is given the ability to understand visions and dreams. At the end of training, the king examines all the candidates personally and finds none equal to the four. They enter the king's service. The chapter closes by noting that Daniel remains there until the first year of Cyrus, more than sixty years later.
Verse 1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
Verse 2. And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with some of the articles from the house of God. He carried these off to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, where he put them in the treasury of his god.
Verse 3. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring in some Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—
Verse 4. young men without blemish, handsome, gifted in all wisdom, knowledgeable, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace—and to teach them the language and literature of the Chaldeans.
Verse 5. The king assigned them daily provisions of the royal food and wine. They were to be trained for three years, after which they were to enter the king’s service.
Verse 6. Among these young men were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Verse 7. The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
Verse 8. But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself.
Verse 9. Now God had granted Daniel favor and compassion from the chief official,
Verse 10. but he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking thinner than those of the other young men your age? You would endanger my head before the king!”
Verse 11. Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
Verse 12. “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given only vegetables to eat and water to drink.
Verse 13. Then compare our appearances with those of the young men who are eating the royal food, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”
Verse 14. So he consented to this and tested them for ten days.
Verse 15. And at the end of ten days, they looked healthier and better nourished than all the young men who were eating the king’s food.
Verse 16. So the steward continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and he gave them vegetables instead.
Verse 17. To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. And Daniel had insight into all kinds of visions and dreams.
Verse 18. Now at the end of the time specified by the king, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.
Verse 19. And the king spoke with them, and among all the young men he found no one equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the king’s service.
Verse 20. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.
Verse 21. And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
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