Danielchapter 1
21 verses · Daniel, by tradition · 6th century BC · The Prophets
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
Introduction
Daniel, by tradition, The Prophets, Daniel Overview.
This chapter opens the book in the year Judah first lost its young nobles to Babylon. It was written for Jews who lived as a small people inside a vast empire and wondered whether faithfulness could survive so far from the temple. It is a court story, told in Hebrew, about captives trained to serve the king who had taken them. Listen for what the empire changes and what it cannot change, and for one small choice made early. Read it as the pattern for the five stories that follow.
Context
- Who
- Jewish readers who knew what it was to be a small people swallowed by a huge empire, and who wondered whether faithfulness was even possible so far from the temple
- What
- A court narrative of four captives of Judah trained in Babylon, their refusal of the king's food and the wisdom God gave them.
- Where
- The royal court of Babylon, in the school where captives from the conquered nations were trained for the king's service.
- When
- The third year of Jehoiakim, about 605 BC, with a closing note that reaches to the first year of Cyrus in 539 BC.
- Why
- To show exiles that faithfulness to God stays possible inside a foreign empire, and that God rules over that empire too.
Historical context
In 605 BC Babylon's crown prince Nebuchadnezzar smashed Egypt's army at Carchemish and inherited the whole corridor of land from the Euphrates down to the Egyptian border. Judah came with it. Nebuchadnezzar took a first group of hostages from Jerusalem, not laborers, but boys from the royal and noble families. Daniel was one of them.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
Taking the sons of a conquered king's court was standard empire management. Raise them in your capital, teach them your language, feed them from your kitchen, and in twenty years you have loyal administrators who know the home country from the inside. Assyria had done it before Babylon; Persia would do it after.
The curriculum named here is real: "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans." That meant cuneiform, which took years to master, the sign lists, the omen collections, the astronomical diaries, the legal and medical texts. Thousands of these tablets have been dug up, so we know exactly what these boys were being made to read.
The name changes were part of the erasing. Daniel means "God is my judge"; Belteshazzar points to Bel, Babylon's own god. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah all carry the name of Israel's God inside them; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not. The empire was renaming them into itself.
The food is where they drew the line. Royal rations were a privilege, palace records list exactly who got meat, oil, and wine from the king's table, and a ration tablet from Babylon even names King Jehoiachin of Judah among the recipients. Refusing that table was refusing a favor, in public, in front of the man responsible for their heads.
Significance
For a Jewish reader this chapter answers the first question exile raises: is it over? The temple was still standing, but the best of Judah's next generation was now being trained to serve the empire that would burn it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The answer here is quiet and stubborn. They learn the Chaldean books. They wear the Babylonian names. They serve the Babylonian king. But they decide in advance what they will not eat, and God gives them favor and understanding inside the very system built to absorb them. Faithfulness did not require escape. It required a line drawn early, before the pressure came.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read aloud in the synagogue. Probed for this lane, the site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Daniel, and no festival reading. The site's book dossier records that Daniel stands among the Writings in the Hebrew Bible rather than among the Prophets, so no weekly portion is drawn from it and no Haftarah either.
The story of the four young men at the king's table is met instead in the study of the Talmud and the Midrash, and the corpus shows where. Under the eighth verse, where Daniel resolves not to defile himself with the king's food, it carries Avodah Zarah 36a:6. Under the fourth verse it carries Chullin 24a:13, and under the twelfth and the sixteenth it carries Megillah 12b:6 and 13a:17.
How it is read
Two commentators on this chapter have English in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Ibn Ezra is quoted from the Sefaria Community Translation, which Sefaria reports as CC0. Both are held to fifty words a quotation because the translations are modern.
Ibn Ezra opens the book by saying what kind of book it is. "Weighty matters are discussed in it, and prophecies past and future. Everything is presented concisely in riddles, and secrets [revealed] through angels on high, resting upon foundations." He adds that the commentators before him stumbled over the reckoning of the end in the twelfth chapter and took the fourth beast of the seventh chapter for the third (Ibn Ezra on Daniel 1:1:1).
Rashi begins with the date. Jeremiah counts the first year of Nebuchadnezzar as the fourth of Jehoiakim, so the third year here needs an answer. He takes it from Seder Olam, chapter 24: it is the third year of Jehoiakim's rebellion, which was the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar (Rashi on Daniel 1:1:1).
The chapter's other notes are short. The strength asked of the youths is read through Sanhedrin 93b: "they should restrain themselves from laughing, speaking and sleeping, out of fear of the throne" (Rashi on Daniel 1:4:1). The new name Belteshazzar joins the god Bel to a word for wisdom. "Teshazzar is the Aramaic expression denoting wisdom" (Rashi on Daniel 1:7:1). Ibn Ezra notes that the four were companions and not brothers, and that the verse names them of Judah to set them apart from the captives of Benjamin (Ibn Ezra on Daniel 1:6:1).
The ten days of vegetables draw the one open difference in the chapter. Saadia Gaon, as Ibn Ezra reports him, called the youths' good health a great miracle. Ibn Ezra answers that no miracle need be assumed, since they could have been eating rice, which he calls more pleasing than wheat and says produces pure blood, by the medicine of his day (Ibn Ezra on Daniel 1:15:1). Ibn Ezra then marks the line between Daniel and his friends. All four were equal in wisdom, "for he alone was a prophet, and not the [other] three" (Ibn Ezra on Daniel 1:17:1).
The last verse carries a debate of the Sages that Rashi reports without settling. One view holds that Hathach in the book of Esther is Daniel, named for being cut off from his greatness, and makes the Cyrus of this verse the first Cyrus. The other view holds that all royal affairs were decided by his word, and makes this Cyrus a later king (Rashi on Daniel 1:21:1).
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-nine rabbinic locators on this chapter. Four of them stand in the Talmud and its minor tractates and the rest in the Midrash. The corpus carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted.
On the first verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 65:13, Otzar Midrashim, The Ten Exiles 2:8, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 49:7 and Seder Olam Rabbah 25:1. On the second verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 15:13, Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 27:3:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 27:3:3 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 28:9:21. On the fourth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:11, Chullin 24a:13, Devarim Rabbah 1:20 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:21. On the fifth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 12:4, Bamidbar Rabbah 6:3, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Chullin 1:6 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 16:15:1. On the sixth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 53:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 13:4, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 32 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:22. On the seventh verse it holds Shemot Rabbah 18:5.
On the eighth verse it holds Avodah Zarah 36a:6, Bereshit Rabbah 34:10, Bereshit Rabbah 67:8 and Esther Rabbah 10:3. On the ninth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:6, Sifrei Bamidbar 41:1 and Sifrei Zuta 6:25:2. On the eleventh verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 169:6 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 271:1. On the twelfth verse it holds Megillah 12b:6 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 43:1. On the span Daniel 1:12 to 13 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 21:2. On the sixteenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:31 and Megillah 13a:17.
On the nineteenth verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 814:1. On the twentieth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayera 27. On the twenty-first verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Esther, Introduction 3 and Seder Olam Rabbah 28:1.
Sefaria also files one link for this chapter to Introductions to Amoraic Literature, a modern study rather than a rabbinic source. It is named among the sources and left out of the count above. What each locator teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and it is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Daniel 1:1:1 to Daniel 1:19:1, Sefaria Community Translation, reported CC0; Rashi, Rashi on Daniel 1:1:1 to Daniel 1:21:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Introductions to Amoraic Literature, Introductions to Amoraic Literature, Part II (Notes and Interpretations for Chapters of the Talmud), Pesachim, Chapter II 58, linked by Sefaria under Talmud, cited by ref; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/daniel/1.json, the 39 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this book and printing daniel parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0, and src/components/book/dossier-content/daniel.ts on the place of Daniel among the Writings.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Carried to Babylon and given new names
Daniel 1:1-2
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came: The third year of Jehoiakim dates the opening to the first of Judah's deportations. Jeremiah 25:1 names his fourth year, a difference Keil traces to Babylonian and Judean ways of counting a king's years. The text makes God the actor: “the Lord delivered into his hand” the king of Judah.
Daniel 1:1
“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem - This event occurred, according to Jahn (“History of the Hebrew Commonwealth”), in the year 607 b.c., and in the 368th year after the revolt of the ten tribes. According to Usher, it was in the 369th year of the revolt, and 606 b.c. The computation of Usher is the one generally received, but the difference of a year in the reckoning is not material. Compare Michaelis, Anmerkung, zu 2 Kon. xxiv.”
Lord delivered into his hand: Hippolytus of Rome read "the Lord delivered" as written so that readers would credit the fall of Jehoiakim king of Judah to God. Only some articles were carried off. Adam Clarke adds that the king of Babylon left the articles the service at Jerusalem still required.
Daniel 1:2
“Part of the vessels of the house of God - He took the richest and finest of them for the service of his god Bel, and left what were necessary for carrying on the public worship of Jehovah, (for he did not attempt to alter the civil or religious constitution of Judea); for leaving Jehoiakim on the throne, he only laid the land under tribute. The Chaldeans carried these sacred vessels away at three different times. 1. In the war spoken of in this place. 2. In the taking of Jerusalem and Jeconiah a few months after, 2Ki 24:13.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Daniel 1:2
“It is probable that the treasures of the king's house were rifled, as was foretold, but particular mention is made of the taking away of the vessels of the sanctuary because we shall find afterwards that the profanation of them was that which filled up the measure of the Chaldeans' iniquity, ch.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Daniel 1:2
“Here Daniel marks the time in which he was led into captivity together with his companions, namely, in the third year of Jehoiakim A difficult question arises here, since Nebuchadnezzar began to reign in the fourth year of Jehoiakim.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Daniel 1:3-5
the king ordered Ashpenaz: The king orders Ashpenaz to bring young men “from the royal family and the nobility,” chosen “without blemish”. They receive a daily portion of “the royal food and wine” and three years of training. They are to learn “the language and literature of the Chaldeans” and “enter the king’s service”.
Daniel 1:3
“And the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs,.... That is, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon spake to this officer of his, whose name was Ashpenaz; which, according to Saadiah, signifies a man of an angry countenance; but Hillerus (e) derives it from the Arabic word "schaphan", as designing one that excels in wit and understanding; for which reason he might have the command of the eunuchs, many of which the eastern princes had about them, particularly to wait upon their women, or to educate youth, as the Turks have now; though, as R.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 1:3
“Of the eunuchs - These were chief among the king's servants; and they are called eunuchs, because many of them were such. And of the princes - Here was fulfilled what the prophet Isaiah had foretold, Isaiah xxxix, 7.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
language and literature of the Chaldeans: John Wesley notes that the Chaldeans led in natural philosophy. Matthew Henry observes that the king ordered Ashpenaz to teach the young men the language, and gave no order to teach the Chaldean religion. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown put them at twelve or fourteen years.
Daniel 1:4
“Children - ילדים yeladim, youths, young men; and so the word should be rendered throughout this book. Skilled in all wisdom - Rather, persons capable of every kind of literary accomplishment, that they might be put under proper instruction. And as children of the blood and of the nobles mere most likely, from the care usually taken of their initiatory education, to profit most by the elaborate instruction here designed, the master of the eunuchs, the king’s chamberlain, was commanded to choose the youths in question out of such.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 1:4
“Nay, we do not find that he ordered them to be taught the religion of the Chaldeans, by which it appears That he was at this time no bigot; if men were skilful and faithful, and fit for his business, it was not material to him what religion they were of, provided they had but some religion.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
daily provisions of the royal food: Albert Barnes reports John Calvin saw the royal food and wine as a plan to make the young men forget Judah. Barnes found no evidence for that aim. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that Eastern kings commonly gave royal captives provisions from the king's table, citing Jeremiah 52:33 to 34.
Daniel 1:5
“And the king appointed them - Calvin supposes that this arrangement was resorted to in order to render them effeminate, and, by a course of luxurious living, to induce them gradually to forget their own country, and that with the same view their names were changed. But there is no evidence that this was the object.”
Daniel 1:6-7
young men were some from Judah: The four the book will follow, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, each carry a name built on El or Jah, the names of Israel's God. “The chief official gave them new names” drawn from the gods of Babylon, Belteshazzar carrying the name of Bel as the older commentators read it.
Daniel 1:6
“Now among these - There were no doubt several noble youths from other provinces: but the four mentioned here were Jews, and are supposed to have all been of royal extraction.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
gave them new names: Jerome compared Pharaoh's renaming of Joseph in Genesis 41:45. Adam Clarke, following Calmet, reads the name as a mark that the king of Babylon ruled these young men. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see in the new names a seeming triumph of Babylon's gods that ends before the God of Daniel.
Daniel 1:7
“Gave names - That is, other names, relating to the idol-gods. Belteshazzar - So Daniel had the name of Belteshazzar, from the great Babylonian idol Baal or Bell. This was by the king's command, and herein he put forth an act: of his sovereignty.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Purposed in his heart: ten days of vegetables
Daniel 1:8-10
Daniel made up his mind: The text puts the resolve first: “Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself,” then “he asked the chief official for permission”. The older commentators note that food and wine from the king's table were likely offered to idols first.
Daniel 1:8
“But Daniel - would not defile himself - I have spoken of this resolution in the introduction. The chief reasons why Daniel would not eat meat from the royal table were probably these three: - 1. Because they ate unclean beasts, which were forbidden by the Jewish law. 2. Because they ate, as did the heathens in general, beasts which had been strangled, or not properly blooded. 3. Because the animals that were eaten were first offered as victims to their gods.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
granted Daniel favor and compassion: The verse credits God with the favor Daniel found with the chief official, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set it beside Joseph in Genesis 39:21. Albert Barnes notes that the verse does not say how. He presumed God used Daniel's manners and his evident gifts of wisdom and understanding.
You would endanger my head: Albert Barnes explains the fear. A pale and thin Daniel would be read at court as the official's own disobedience to the king's order. The objection concerns the official's safety, and Daniel's next request, made to the steward in verse 11, answers it with a short trial.
Daniel 1:10
“And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king - He was apprehensive that if Daniel appeared less healthful, or cheerful, or beautiful, than it was supposed he would under the prescribed mode of life, it would be construed as disobedience of the commands of the king on his part, and that it would be inferred that the wan and emaciated appearance of Daniel was caused by the fact that the food which had been ordered had not been furnished, but had been embezzled by the officer who had it in charge.”
Daniel 1:11-14
Daniel said to the steward: Daniel takes his proposal to the steward, and asks, “Please test your servants for ten days,” with “only vegetables to eat and water to drink”. The test has a set length and is judged by sight: “compare our appearances” and “deal with your servants according to what you see”.
Daniel 1:11
“Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel ... - Margin, or, the “steward.” It is not easy to determine whether the word here used (מלצר meltsâr) is to be regarded as a proper name, or the name of an office. It occurs nowhere else, except in Dan 1:16, applied to the same person. Gesenius regards it as denoting the name of an office in the Babylonian court - master of the wine, chief butler. Others regard it as meaning a treasurer. The word is still in use in Persia.”
only vegetables to eat: The Hebrew word for "vegetables" covers any food grown from seed, which Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take from Gesenius and Adam Clarke glosses as seeds. Daniel asked the steward to test his servants for ten days before he could see the outcome, and Jerome judged that an act of faith.
Daniel 1:12
“Give us pulse to eat - הזרעים hazzeraim, seeds or grain, such as barley, wheat, rye, and peas, etc. Though a vegetable diet might have produced that healthiness of the system in general, and of the countenance particularly, as mentioned here; yet we are to understand that there was an especial blessing of God in this, because this spare diet was taken on a religious account.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
compare our appearances: Albert Barnes observes that healthy appearances were one aim of the training the king ordered in verses 4 and 5. Daniel asks to be tested by that measure. The steward keeps the decision in his hands, for Daniel asks him to “deal with your servants according to what you see”.
Daniel 1:13
“Then let our countenances be looked upon - One of the “objects” to be secured by this whole trial was to promote their personal beauty, and their healthful appearance Dan 1:4-5, and Daniel was willing that the trial should be made with reference to that, and that a judgment should be formed from the observed effect of their temperate mode of life. The Hebrew word rendered countenance (מראה mar'eh) is not limited to the “face,” as the word countenance is with us.”
he consented to this: Albert Barnes explains the consent. Ten days put the steward at little risk, because he could restore the royal diet if the trial failed. Hippolytus of Rome read the outcome in the next verse as grace given to the four beyond the other youths of their age.
Daniel 1:14
“And so Scripture says, "And the chief eunuch heard them and tested them for ten days and after the end of the ten days their appearances appeared better and stronger in body compared to the boys who ate at the table of the king." [Daniel 1:14-15] And so these boys, though nourished with bread and water alone, were equipped with heavenly wisdom, and they had grace beyond all the boys their same age.”
Hippolytus of Rome · written before 235 · Commentary on Daniel 1.12.1-2patristic
Daniel 1:15-16
at the end of ten days: After ten days the four “looked healthier and better nourished than all the young men who were eating the king’s food.” The older commentators set the result beside the manna by which God fed Israel. So the steward “continued to withhold their choice food” and gave them vegetables.
Daniel 1:15
“By this it appears that man lives not by bread alone; pulse and water shall be the most nourishing food if God speak the word. See what it is to keep ourselves pure from the pollutions of sin; it is the way to have that comfort and satisfaction which will be health to the navel and marrow to the bones, while the pleasures of sin are rottenness to the bones.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
gave them vegetables instead: Albert Barnes takes the change as permanent. John Chrysostom counted the king's food and wine forbidden to the four young men, whose choice lay between famine or death and eating forbidden food.
Daniel 1:16
“Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat ... - Doubtless permanently. The experiment had been satisfactory, and it was inferred that if the course of temperance could be practiced for ten days without unhappy results, there would be safety in suffering it to be continued. We may remark on this: I. That the experiment was a most important one, not only for the object then immediately in view, but for furnishing lessons of permanent instruction adapted to future times.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 1:16
“Here is a great example of temperance and contentment with mean things; and (as Epicurus said) "he that lives according to nature will never be poor, but he that lives according to opinion will never be rich." This wonderful abstemiousness of these young men in the days of their youth contributed to the fitting of them, 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ten times better than all the king's magicians
Daniel 1:17-18
To these four young men: The text names God as the giver: “God gave knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom” to all four. Daniel alone receives “insight into all kinds of visions and dreams,” the gift the rest of the book runs on. The chief official presents them to Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 1:17
“As for these four children - On the word “children,” see the notes at Dan 1:4. Compare Dan 1:6. God gave them knowledge and skill - See the notes at Dan 1:9. There is no reason to suppose that in the “knowledge and skill” here referred to, it is meant to be implied that there was anything miraculous, or that there was any direct inspiration.”
the time specified by the king: Jerome, John Gill and Adam Clarke read the time specified as the three years of training set in verse 5. Gill and Albert Barnes add that the whole group of Israelite youths came in together. The four stood among their peers.
Daniel 1:18
“Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in,.... That is, at the end of three years; which was the time appointed for their education, and when they were to be brought before the king for his examination and approbation: then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar; even all the young men that were taken from among the children of Israel and Judah, as well as the four children before and after mentioned, appears by what follows. This was done by Asphenaz, and not Melzar.”
2 more voices on this verse
Daniel 1:18
“Now at the end of the days - That is, at the end of three years, Dan 1:5.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Daniel 1:18
“Now at the end of the days ... - After three years. See Dan 1:5. The prince of the eunuchs brought them in - Daniel, his three friends, and the others who had been selected and trained for the same purpose.”
Daniel 1:19-21
the king spoke with them: The king questions them himself and finds “no one equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,” so they enter his service. The closing line, “Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus,” carries him past the fall of the empire that took him.
Daniel 1:19
“He could do it, being a man of parts and learning himself, else he would not have come to be so great; and he would do it, for it is the wisdom of princes, in the choice of the persons they employ, to see with their own eyes, to exercise their own judgment, and not trust too much to the representation of others.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
magicians and enchanters: Jerome notes that the Vulgate rendered the magicians and enchanters as sophists and philosophers. Adam Clarke took them as philosophers and astronomers. Matthew Henry says the king found a little true wisdom from God in these men worth more than the arts of his magicians and enchanters.
Daniel 1:20
“And in all matters of wisdom and understanding - Margin, “of.” The Hebrew is, “Everything of wisdom of understanding.” The Greek, “In all things of wisdom “and” knowledge.” The meaning is, in everything which required peculiar wisdom to understand and explain it. The points submitted were such as would appropriately come before the minds of the sages and magicians who were employed as counselors at court. He found them ten times better - Better counselors, better informed. Hebrew, “ten “hands” above the magicians;” that is, ten “times,” or “many” times.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 1:20
“He was soon aware of something extraordinary in these young men, and, which gave him a surprising satisfaction, was soon aware that a little of their true divinity was preferable to a great deal of the divination he had been used to.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the first year of King Cyrus: Adam Clarke and Jerome both note that Daniel 10:1 finds Daniel alive in the third year of King Cyrus. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the year as a mark that he lived to see the captivity end. Albert Barnes ties it to the decree in Ezra 1:1.
Daniel 1:21
“And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus - When the proclamation was issued by him to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, Ezr 1:1. That is, he continued in influence and authority at different times during that period, and, of course, during the whole of the seventy years captivity.”
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel; Hippolytus of Rome; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER ONE; John Chrysostom, A Treatise to Prove that No One Can Harm the Man Who Does Not Injure Himself; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.