Daniel 10:3
in Daniel 10I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
KJV
I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
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This verse in Daniel 10
Commentary
10 notes on this verseThis abstinence Daniel used in order to please God by humiliation, and not for the purpose of producing a sensibility and wisdom for his soul previous to receiving communication by dreams and visions, as if it were not rather to effect such action in an ecstatic state. This "sobriety" … will have nothing to do with exciting ecstasy but will rather serve to recommend its being wrought by God.
This site's exposition
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia
on Daniel 10:1-3
The final vision comes in the third year of Cyrus, after the decree of Ezra 1 has already let a remnant go up, and the thing revealed is called true and the time appointed long, the corridor of chapters eleven and twelve now opened. Daniel mourns three full weeks, eating no pleasant bread, no flesh or wine, using no oil, a partial fast the bench connects to the resistance already raised against the rebuilding recorded at Ezra 4, grief over a work begun and then hindered. The date, the twenty-fourth of the first month, sets the vision just after Israel's own Passover season, the feast of the exodus kept while Daniel fasts over a second exodus stalled.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
The prophet teaches us that fasting is a great virtue and so too is affliction with prayer. Through these things sometimes a person is deemed worthy even of visions.
Verses 2, 3. "In those days I, Daniel, mourned for the days of three weeks; I ate no desirable bread, and neither flesh or wine entered into my mouth; neither was I anointed with ointment until the days of three weeks were accomplished." By this example we are taught to abstain from the pleasanter types of food (I think that the term "desirable bread" is that inclusive) during a period of fasting, and that we neither eat flesh nor drink wine, and especially that we desire no anointing with ointments.
In this way, after speaking these things, the prophet describes to us again another vision. For the blessed Daniel meditated on no other vision, lest he not be accurately taught all the things to come and he not teach and reveal these things to us again. Indeed he says, "In the third year of Cyrus king of the Persians a word was revealed to Daniel, who was called the name Baltasar, and the word was true and great power and understanding was given to him in the vision. 'In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three weeks of days, I did not eat desirable bread and meat and wine did not enter my mouth and I did not anoint myself with oil for three full weeks of days. On the twenty and fourth day of the first month.'" [Daniel 10:1-4] "I was humbled," he says, "twenty one days praying to the living God requesting from him the revealing of mysteries." And then, after the Father heard, he sent his Word, thus pointing out what is about to happen through him and then that it would happen along the Great River. For the event is necessary to have happened there where the Son was demonstrated, where also he was about to forgive sins.
Daniel paid no attention to his body in these days either by anointing the outside or [by taking] food within. Quite well and usefully he has added the descriptor desirable not to meat but to bread. For bread is the most necessary food of all; …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
A description of that glorious person whom Daniel saw in vision, which, it is generally agreed, could be no other that Christ himself, the eternal Word. He was by the side of the river Hiddekel (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
I ate no pleasant bread,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
I ate no pleasant bread - Margin, “bread of desires.” So the Hebrew. The meaning is, that he abstained from ordinary food, and partook of that only which was coarse and disagreeable. Neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth - That is, he lived on bread or vegetables. It is not to be inferred from this that Daniel ordinarily made use of wine, for it would seem from Dan. 1: that that was not his custom. What would appear from this passage would be, that he practiced on this occasion the most rigid abstinence.
I ate no pleasant bread - This fast was rather a general abstinence; living all the while on coarse and unsavory food; drinking nothing but water; not using the bath, and most probably wearing haircloth next the skin, during the whole of the time.
The words behind it
18 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לֶ֣חֶם | lechem | food of | H3899 → | |
| חֲמֻד֞וֹת | chamudot | desirableness<es> | H2532 → | 21 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אָכַ֗לְתִּי | ʾakhalti | I ate | H398 → | 810 times |
| וּבָשָׂ֥ר | uvasar | and meat | H1320 → | |
| וָיַ֛יִן | vayayin | and wine | H3196 → | 141 times |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| בָ֥א | va' | it came | H935 → | 2568 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | into | H413 → | 5510 times |
| פִּ֖י | pi | mouth my | H6310 → | |
| וְס֣וֹךְ | vesokh | and indeed <anoint> | H5480 → | |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| סָ֑כְתִּי | sakheti | I anointed myself | H5480 → | |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| מְלֹ֕את | melot | were completed | H4390 → | |
| שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁת | sheloshet | three | H7969 → | 432 times |
| שָׁבֻעִ֖ים | shavuim | sevens | H7620 → | 20 times |
| יָמִֽים׃ פ | yamim | days | H3117 → | 2304 times |
לֶ֣חֶםfood of
lechemH3899 →
חֲמֻד֞וֹתdesirableness<es>
chamudotH2532 →21 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
אָכַ֗לְתִּיI ate
ʾakhaltiH398 →810 times
וּבָשָׂ֥רand meat
uvasarH1320 →
וָיַ֛יִןand wine
vayayinH3196 →141 times
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
בָ֥אit came
va'H935 →2568 times
אֶל־into
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
פִּ֖יmouth my
piH6310 →
וְס֣וֹךְand indeed <anoint>
vesokhH5480 →
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
סָ֑כְתִּיI anointed myself
sakhetiH5480 →
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
מְלֹ֕אתwere completed
melotH4390 →
שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁתthree
sheloshetH7969 →432 times
שָׁבֻעִ֖יםsevens
shavuimH7620 →20 times
יָמִֽים׃ פdays
yamimH3117 →2304 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Corinthians 9:27No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
it leads to
- Romans 8:13
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
- 1 Corinthians 9:25
Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable.
- Colossians 3:5
Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
- 2 Corinthians 13:5–6
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you actually fail the test?
- 1 Peter 2:11
Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.
- Romans 8:13
Through
Matthew 6:17But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
it leads to
- Ruth 3:3
Therefore wash yourself, put on perfume, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
- Ecclesiastes 9:8
Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.
- Ruth 3:3
Through
Amos 5:11Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the…
it leads to
- Zephaniah 1:13
Their wealth will be plundered and their houses laid waste. They will build houses but not inhabit them, and plant vineyards but never drink their wine.
- Zephaniah 1:13
Where this verse is studied
About Daniel
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Daniel; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ammonius of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS ON DANIEL 10:3; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel; Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 4.36.1-4; Jerome, St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER TEN; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Tertullian, ON THE SOUL 48 and Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:2-3.