Daniel 1:12-21

1:12 “Please test your servants for ten days by providing us with some vegetables to eat and water to drink. 1:13 Then compare our appearance ¹  with that of ²  the young men who are eating the royal delicacies; ³  deal with us ⁴  in light of what you see.” 1:14 So the warden ⁵  agreed to their proposal ⁶  and tested them for ten ⁷  days.

1:15 At the end of the ten days their appearance was better and their bodies were healthier ⁸  than all the young men who had been eating the royal delicacies. 1:16 So the warden removed the delicacies and the wine ⁹  from their diet ¹⁰  and gave them a diet of vegetables instead. 1:17 Now as for these four young men, God endowed them with knowledge and skill in all sorts of literature and wisdom – and Daniel had insight into all kinds of visions and dreams.

1:18 When the time appointed by the king arrived, ¹¹  the overseer of the court officials brought them into Nebuchadnezzar’s presence. 1:19 When the king spoke with them, he did not find among the entire group ¹²  anyone like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, or Azariah. So they entered the king’s service. ¹³  1:20 In every matter of wisdom and ¹⁴  insight the king asked them about, he found them to be ten times ¹⁵  better than any of the magicians and astrologers that were in his entire empire. 1:21 Now Daniel lived on until the first ¹⁶  year of Cyrus the king.

¹ tn Heb “let our appearance be seen before you.”

² tn Heb “the appearance of.”

³ tn Heb “delicacies of the king.” So also in v. 15.

⁴ tn Heb “your servants.”

⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the warden mentioned in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “listened to them with regard to this matter.”

⁷ sn The number ten is sometimes used in the OT as an ideal number of completeness. Cf. v. 20; Zech 8:23; Rev 2:10.

⁸ tn Heb “fat of flesh”; KJV, ASV “fatter in flesh”; NASB, NRSV “fatter” (although this is no longer a sign of health in Western culture).

⁹ tn Heb “the wine of their drinking.”

¹⁰ tn The words “from their diet” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “at the end of the days which the king said to bring them.”

¹² tn Heb “from all of them.”

¹³ tn Heb “stood before the king.”

¹⁴ tc The MT lacks the conjunction, reading the first word in the phrase as a construct (“wisdom of insight”). While this reading is not impossible, it seems better to follow Theodotion, the Syriac, the Vulgate, and the Sahidic Coptic, all of which have the conjunction.

¹⁵ tn Heb “hands.”

¹⁶ sn The Persian king Cyrus’ first year in control of Babylon was 539 B.C. Daniel actually lived beyond the first year of Cyrus, as is clear from 10:1. The purpose of the statement in 1:21 is merely to say that Daniel’s life spanned the entire period of the neo-Babylonian empire. His life span also included the early years of the Persian control of Babylon. However, by that time his age was quite advanced; he probably died sometime in the 530’s B.C.