Daniel 1

After King Jehoiakim had been ruling Judah for almost three years, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem with his army and surrounded the city.

{After two years,} the Lord allowed Nebuchadnezzar to capture Jehoiakim, the king of Judah. They also captured some of the things that the priests used in God’s temple. They brought them back to Shinar, and Nebuchadnezzar put them in the treasury of the temple of his god. \*

Then Nebuchadnezzar commanded Ashpenaz, the chief official in his palace, to bring some Israelite men to Babylon. He wanted men who belonged to important families, including the family of the king of Judah.

He wanted young men who were healthy, handsome, and very intelligent. They needed to be people who had learned and understood many things. They had to be capable of working in the palace. People were to teach them the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

The king told his servants to give them each day the same food and wine that he ate and drank. He told them to train them for three years. After that, they could work for him. \*

Among the Judeans whom Ashpenaz brought to Babylon were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

The chief official gave them Babylonian names. He called Daniel Belteshazzar. He called Hananiah Shadrach. He called Mishael Meshach. And he called Azariah Abednego. \*

But Daniel resolved not to make himself ritually unclean by eating the same food that the king ate or drinking the same wine that he drank. So he asked the chief official for permission to eat and drink something else.

God caused the chief official to respect Daniel and to want to help him.

However, the chief official told Daniel, “My master, the king, ordered us to give you his own food and drink. So I am afraid of what he might do to me if I let you eat something else. Suppose he saw that you were not as healthy as the other young men who are your age. Then he might execute me!” \*

So Daniel spoke instead to the man whom the chief official had appointed to care for him and for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

He asked him, “Please let us try something for ten days. Give us only beans, grains, and vegetables to eat and only water to drink.

Then examine us and see how we look. Compare us to the other young men who are eating the same food as the king. Based on what you see, decide what food you will let us eat.” \*

The man agreed to do what Daniel suggested. He let them try eating and drinking something different for ten days.

After those ten days, he saw that Daniel and his friends looked better and healthier than all the young men who had been eating the same food as the king.

So after that, the guard allowed them to keep eating only beans, grain, and vegetables. He did not make them eat the same food and drink the same wine as the king. \*

God enabled those four young men to learn what the Babylonians were teaching them. He enabled them to understand their literature and to learn to think wisely. He enabled Daniel to understand what visions and dreams meant.

The king had said to bring the young men to him at the end of those three years. So the chief official brought them into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar. \*

The king spoke with each young man. He realized that none of the others were as capable as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So he included those four young men among his advisors.

Whenever the king asked them to help him understand something, he found that what they told him was much better than what any of the magicians or sorcerers in his kingdom told him.

Daniel remained an advisor in the royal court right up to the time when Cyrus became king. \*