Daniel 1:5-7

1:5 So the king assigned them a daily ration ¹  from his royal delicacies ²  and from the wine he himself drank. They were to be trained ³  for the next three years. At the end of that time they were to enter the king’s service. ⁴  1:6 As it turned out, ⁵  among these young men ⁶  were some from Judah: ⁷  Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. ⁸  1:7 But the overseer of the court officials renamed them. He gave ⁹  Daniel the name Belteshazzar, Hananiah he named Shadrach, Mishael he named Meshach, and Azariah he named Abednego. ¹⁰ 

[1:5]  ¹ tn Heb “a thing of a day in its day.”

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “from the delicacies of the king.”

[1:5]  ³ tn Or “educated.” See HALOT 179 s.v. I גדל.

[1:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “stand before the king.”

[1:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it happened that.”

[1:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “among them”; the referent (the young men taken captive from Judah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the sons of Judah.”

[1:6]  ⁸ sn The names reflect a Jewish heritage. In Hebrew Daniel means “God is my judge”; Hananiah means “the Lord is gracious”; Mishael means “who is what God is?”; Azariah means “the Lord has helped.”

[1:7]  ⁹ tc The LXX and Vulgate lack the verb here.

[1:7]  ¹⁰ sn The meanings of the Babylonian names are more conjectural than is the case with the Hebrew names. The probable etymologies are as follows: Belteshazzar means “protect his life,” although the MT vocalization may suggest “Belti, protect the king” (cf. Dan 4:8); Shadrach perhaps means “command of Aku”; Meshach is of uncertain meaning; Abednego means “servant of Nego.” Assigning Babylonian names to the Hebrew youths may have been an attempt to erase from their memory their Israelite heritage.