Daniel 1:14
in Daniel 1So he consented to this and tested them for ten days.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
So he hearkened unto them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
KJV
So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
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This verse in Daniel 1
Commentary
5 notes on this verseAnd 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.
This site's exposition
Daniel said to the steward
on Daniel 1:11-14
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”.
This site's exposition
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
So he consented to them in all this matter,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
So he consented to them in this matter - Hebrew, “he heard them in this thing.” The experiment was such, since it was to be for so short a time, that he ran little risk in the matter, as at the end of the ten days he supposed that it would be easy to change their mode of diet if the trial was unsuccessful.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּשְׁמַ֥ע | vaiyishma' | and he listened | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| לָהֶ֖ם | lahem | to them | ||
| לַדָּבָ֣ר | ladavar | to the thing | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| הַזֶּ֑ה | hazeh | <the> this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| וַיְנַסֵּ֖ם | vaynasem | and he put to [the] test them | H5254 → | |
| יָמִ֥ים | yamim | days | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| עֲשָׂרָֽה׃ | ʾasarah | ten | H6235 → | 176 times |
וַיִּשְׁמַ֥עand he listened
vaiyishma'H8085 →1159 times
לָהֶ֖םto them
lahem
לַדָּבָ֣רto the thing
ladavarH1697 →1440 times
הַזֶּ֑ה<the> this
hazehH2088 →1180 times
וַיְנַסֵּ֖םand he put to [the] test them
vaynasemH5254 →
יָמִ֥יםdays
yamimH3117 →2304 times
עֲשָׂרָֽה׃ten
ʾasarahH6235 →176 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies11
On this chapter
About Daniel
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Daniel; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 1.12.1-2; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.