Daniel 1:1–21

1:1–2 The book of Daniel begins with an ominous report: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, besieged Jerusalem in 605 BC. The king of Judah was Jehoiakim, an ungodly king who began his reign at age 25 (2 Kings 23:36–37). God was already angry with Judah “because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him” (2 Kings 23:26) and had resolved to remove Judah from his sight (v. 27).

The words of Daniel 1:2 are unvarnished in their terror. God gave Jehoiakim over to Nebuchadnezzar. The king of Judah was now in the hands of the king of Babylon, though ultimately both were in the hands of God—Nebuchadnezzar was God’s instrument of judgment (2 Kings 24:3–4). This devastation of Jerusalem was the outworking of God’s plan to judge his people. Still, the city of Jerusalem and its temple were not destroyed in 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar’s actions in Daniel 1:1–2 represent only the first of three stages of Jerusalem’s fall. The dates of 597 and 586 BC complete the second and third stages. From 605 to 586 BC, Judah’s status seemed dark, unfathomable, chaotic, and hopeless. This judgment was an expression of God’s faithfulness to the Mosaic covenant, which contained fitting curses for disobedience and idolatry, one of which was exile: “The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone” (Deut. 28:36–37).

In Daniel 1:2, God’s pagan rod of judgment turned against the Jerusalem temple. The spoils from Nebuchadnezzar’s siege included temple vessels made during Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 7). The king of Babylon transported them to the east, to the treasury of his god (Dan. 1:2). Their relocation to Babylon would play a role in chapter 5, when King Belshazzar uses them in his banquet (5:2), while their repatriation to Judah (Ezra 1:7–11) underscores an important continuity between those who returned at the time of Cyrus and their preexilic roots.

The destination of the temple vessels was the “land of Shinar” (Dan. 1:2)—a significant way of referring to Babylon, for Shinar was mentioned in Genesis 11:2. There, rebels sought to make a name for themselves and, in their idolatry, began to build a city-temple to the heavens (vv. 3–4). Yahweh confused the language of the united idolaters, and therefore, “its name was called Babel” (v. 9), the Hebrew name for Babylon. The notion of not understanding a language is also found in the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28, where Yahweh had threatened to “bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand” (v. 49). In Daniel 1, the covenant curse was coming to pass as “Babel-onians” arrived in Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar, like the rebels in Genesis 11, was interested in making a name for himself. He targeted the city, the temple, the temple’s vessels, and the people of God.

1:3–7 Nebuchadnezzar commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to evaluate Israelites using certain criteria so they could be reeducated after their deportation. The first round of deportees were “both of the royal family and of the nobility” (v. 3). By removing individuals from these groups, Nebuchadnezzar hoped to minimize resistance to his plans and increase allegiance among the populace to his Babylonian rule.

According to verse 4, Israelites who faced deportation were to meet a high standard of physical appearance and intellectual capability. Nebuchadnezzar wanted the cream of the Israelite crop, those who might be able to serve in his royal court. These candidates had to be “youths.” While Nebuchadnezzar did not specify an age, the deportees were almost certainly teenagers, perhaps as young as fourteen. The younger the subject, the longer he could serve in the royal court and the more impressionable he would be to the Babylonian worldview. Nebuchadnezzar wanted deportees to learn the literature and language of the Chaldeans—he wanted to make Babylonians out of these Jews. He wanted to reorient their worship and allegiance.

Nebuchadnezzar’s strategy of Babylonian indoctrination included a predetermined daily menu. He “assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank” (v. 5). The issue of eating and drinking is integral to the drama soon to unfold. In addition to the new location, criteria, and menu of the deportees, Nebuchadnezzar set a three-year timetable for their immersion in all things Babylonian. When that time was fulfilled, they would stand before him for evaluation (v. 18).

Four young men among the deportees are named: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The first is the central character of the book, and the others are his friends. All four are mentioned in chapter 2; only Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah appear in chapter 3; Daniel is featured without his friends throughout the rest of the book.

The young men were of the “tribe of Judah” (1:6). They were not just citizens of the southern kingdom but descendants of the royal tribe. In Genesis 49:10, Jacob said, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet.” Judah was the tribe from which the Messiah would come (Matt. 1:2–3; Heb. 7:14). Now Daniel and his friends were experiencing the demise of Judah. It looked as if the scepter was indeed departing from it. It seemed that a pagan king had seized the ruler’s staff.

The names Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are each connected in some way to either the name Yahweh or the name Elohim. It is significant, then, that a renaming accompanied their exile. The new names—Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—were each connected to pagan deities. Nebuchadnezzar explicitly said Daniel was “named Belteshazzar after the name of my god,” Bel (Dan. 4:8). This was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s strategy to make Babylonians out of the Israelite deportees, in both head and heart. The teens faced the challenge of holding fast their devotion to Yahweh in a new place, with new stories to learn and a new language to speak, with a new menu to eat and even new names to bear.

1:8 Daniel resolved not to eat the king’s food or drink his wine. This decision might seem surprising, for up to this point there has been no indication of any resistance to going into exile, receiving the syllabus for Babylonian worldview formation, or learning a new name evoking a Babylonian deity. Perhaps this issue of food and drink was the first thing Daniel could control. He believed partaking of the royal food and drink would be wrong, so he “resolved that he would not defile himself.”

How the king’s food and wine would have defiled Daniel is a disputed question.¹ Some suggest that the food and wine were first offered to idols, and so Daniel refused to partake because he rejected idolatry. There are, however, two problems with this answer. First, the items he requested as substitutes—vegetables and water (v. 12)—would probably have been offered to the pagan gods as well,² and second, later in his servitude Daniel did eat meat and drink wine (10:2–3). Another theory is that the food was not kosher. This explanation is unlikely, though, because wine was not forbidden to Israelites. Some scholars posit more specifically that Daniel may have been abstaining from food and wine because of a Nazirite vow (cf. Numbers 6). A prior vow is possible, but the text is not clear that he made one. Another possibility is that Daniel rejected the king’s menu because the food and drink would have been served using temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon. Other scholars suggest that Daniel wanted to make it clear to the king that his devotion was ultimately to Yahweh. In the end, Daniel’s rejection of the royal food may have been a personal resolution to maintain his devotion to Yahweh, regardless of who knew of it.

Of these options, the most compelling is the last one. Daniel was maintaining his devotion to Yahweh, and eating and drinking the king’s food and wine would have shown dependence on the king. Daniel had been given a Babylonian name, but that was not unique in Babylon. He was learning the Babylonian literature and language, but those things were part of the cultural milieu. The royal table, though, was unique, and enjoying the king’s food and wine was a distinct privilege closely aligning him with the Babylonian ruler. The problem was not the food or wine itself but the fact that it was the king’s. When the food and wine are first mentioned, they are described as “food that the king ate” and “wine that he drank” (Dan. 1:5). When Daniel wanted to avoid defilement, he would have been defiled “with the king’s food” and “with the wine that he drank” (v. 8). The chief of the eunuchs reminded Daniel that “the king” had “assigned your food and your drink” (v. 10). When Daniel suggested a ten-day test, he referred to “the king’s food” (v. 13). After the ten-day test was complete, Daniel and his friends “were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food” (v. 15). Interestingly, once the test succeeded, “The steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables” (v. 16), and no reference is made to the items being the king’s. If it is significant that this is the only time in chapter 1 that the food and wine are not attributed to the king, the shift was probably due to God’s showing favor on Daniel and his friends during the test.

1:9 Daniel’s request was politically dangerous. Ashpenaz could have reported Daniel to the king for rebelling against royal orders, but there is a different result: “God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.” As in verse 2, God “gave,” highlighting his sovereignty over Daniel’s situation.

1:10 The chief of the eunuchs was honest about his fear. Daniel had asked him to go against the king’s orders, and the penalty for such rebellion could be death. Ashpenaz reasonably enough believed the effects of this different diet would be obvious when Daniel and his friends stood before Nebuchadnezzar for evaluation, and the chief of the eunuchs did not want to appear derelict in his duties.

1:11–13 Although the chief eunuch was too fearful to help Daniel with his request, the steward he had appointed over Daniel and his three friends (v. 11) was more sympathetic. Daniel’s second attempt showed the degree of his boldness and persistence. The steward could have reported Daniel’s words to the king but did not. Though there is no mention of Daniel’s discussing his defilement concerns with his three friends, the reader can reasonably assume they shared his resolve (cf. the resolve they themselves later exhibited; 3:16–18).

Daniel proposed a 10-day test (1:12–13). If the steward permitted a brief season of water and vegetables, he could evaluate the four youths compared to the others and act accordingly. No reason is given for the length of ten days, although obviously the test needed to be long enough to provide a fair physical assessment.³ If Daniel and his friends appeared better (i.e., fatter) than the other youths after the test was completed, God’s favor could be the only reason. Daniel was so confident of God’s faithfulness during this impending test that he told the steward to “deal with your servants according to what you see” (v. 13): the steward could, if necessary, put them on the royal diet like everyone else or even deal harshly with them in some other way.

1:14 Although the idea of God’s “favor” is not repeated in this verse (cf. v. 9), that the steward “listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days” (v. 14) was evidence of God’s blessing upon the young men. God had preserved them during the besieging of Jerusalem, through their exile to Babylon, through the expression of resistance to royal orders, and now through their ten-day test.

1:15 When ten days had passed, Daniel and his three friends surpassed not just some of their fellow deportees but also “all the youths who ate the king’s food.” This vindication foreshadowed the fates of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in later narratives.

1:16 Without consulting Nebuchadnezzar, the steward made the decision to take away “their food and the wine they were to drink” and substitute vegetables. This response fulfilled Daniel’s request in verse 13: “Deal with your servants according to what you see.” It is also possible that the steward removed the king’s food and wine from everyone, with “their” (v. 16) referring to “all the youths who ate the king’s food” (v. 15).

1:17–20 Once again “God gave” (cf. vv. 2, 9). He gave the four youths “learning and skill in all literature and wisdom” (v. 17), fulfilling Nebuchadnezzar’s hope for the young exiles. The Babylonian program of indoctrination focused on the literature and language of the Chaldeans, as well as on being skillful in wisdom and knowledge (v. 4). God gave the four young men exactly what they needed in order to have favor with the king. Daniel received from God “understanding in all visions and dreams” (v. 17). This endowment would be integral to the following stories, for Daniel would relay and interpret royal dreams and would see visions directly from God.

The three-year Babylonian education ended, and Nebuchadnezzar ordered that all of the exiled youths be brought before him (v. 18). He evaluated the four young men (v. 19) with tests of wisdom and understanding, and in every matter the king “found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom” (v. 20). The four surpassed not just their Babylonian schoolmates but even the Babylonian seers!

In finding them “ten times better,” Nebuchadnezzar echoes the earlier use of the number “ten” in the passage: Daniel’s suggesting the test for “ten days” (v. 12), the report that the steward tested Daniel and his friends for “ten days” (v. 14), and the announcing of the end of “ten days” (v. 15). Nebuchadnezzar’s estimation of the four as “ten times better” reminds the reader that God was behind their flourishing.

1:21 Like the opening of the chapter, this final verse mentions a king and a year of his reign. While verse 1 informed the reader that Nebuchadnezzar exiled Daniel in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign (605 BC), verse 21 tells us “Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.” Cyrus the Persian conquered Babylon in 539 BC, and Daniel “was there” until that time. This probably means that Daniel served Babylonian kings in the royal court until that time. If Daniel was deported as a teenager in 605, and if the “first year of King Cyrus” (v. 21) was 539, then Daniel served the royal court into his eighties. He showed decades of faithfulness as an exiled worshiper of Yahweh.