And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz the chief of his eunuchs, that he should bring of the children of Israel, both of the royal seed and of the nobles,
Jerusalem has fallen, and Nebuchadnezzar's first order is not about walls or tribute but about young men — the best-born and best-taught of the beaten nation. Behind his command to Ashpenaz lies an older word from God, and a purpose the king knew nothing about.
Long before Babylon marched, Isaiah carried a warning to King Hezekiah. One writer traces this verse straight back to that warning, and notes the mercy God folded into the judgment.
God sent Isaiah to him with this message: "Hear the word of the LORD of hosts… And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon" (Isaiah 39:5-7). The opening verses of our chapter reveal the fulfilment of Isaiah's prediction. But what we want to call attention to is this: in fulfilling His own word in judgment, God remembered mercy. It is out of these very descendants of Hezekiah that He raised up witnesses for Himself in the middle of Babylon's idolatrous corruptions.
The verse calls Ashpenaz the chief eunuch. That word ties the scene to an older prophecy, and it also described a post of trust in the palace.
One thing prophesied against Israel was that their sons would become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 2 Kings 20:18; Isaiah 39:7. Daniel and his companions were an instance of this coming true, for they were put in the care of "the master of the eunuchs." Though the word saris means "eunuch," it is often translated "chamberlain" and "officer," because eunuchs held such positions of trust.
Nebuchadnezzar did not gather servants at random. He picked the best minds of a beaten nation, and he had a use for them.
When Nebuchadnezzar first came against Jerusalem, Daniel and his three friends were carried captive among many youths of royal or noble birth. They were counted as men of exceptional intellectual ability — the pick of the nation in wisdom and understanding. The shrewd Babylonian king intended to strengthen his position with the cleverest men of conquered nations. He would work them into the army of magicians — the men who dealt with demon powers, and gave him guidance by their occult practices.
God allowed the captivity for His own purpose. The king had a purpose of his own for these captives, and the two collided.
God permitted Nebuchadnezzar to carry them away as captives, and by that He was accomplishing His own purpose. But Nebuchadnezzar, now holding power over them, tried to make them serve his will. So a conflict arose at once between the thoughts of God and the thoughts of the king of Babylon… In one word, he wanted them to stop being Jews and to become Chaldeans, and to mix into their new religion the light they had received from the words of God.
These captives are the faithful remnant of their people. The court wanted them; it did not want what made them different.
The king of Babylon's efforts to use the people of God for his own ends bring this godly remnant to our notice. He would try to decorate his court with the leaders of God's people — the king's seed, the princes, and those who were good-looking and marked by wisdom, knowledge and science. The religious world will use the people of God for its own glory. But it cannot tolerate their God, their obedience to His word, or their separation from its own evils. So the world would gladly wipe out every trace of their link with the true God.
The captives included men of the royal family. With David's descendants carried into a foreign palace, the line looked finished.
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, as God allowed in His governmental ways. Zedekiah was the last of the house of David to sit on his throne, and he was blinded. It looked as if the lamp of David had been put out for good… The royal seed went into captivity in Babylon (Dan. 1:3). No one of the house of David reigned in Jerusalem.
- Word kept. Isaiah warned Hezekiah that his sons would serve as eunuchs in Babylon's palace. The order to Ashpenaz is that word coming true.
- Mercy inside judgment. Out of those same descendants God raised up His witnesses in the heart of an idolatrous empire.
- Two plans. God allowed the captivity for His purpose. Nebuchadnezzar took these captives for his own, and the clash starts here.
- World's offer. The world will take the gifts of God's people. It will not take their God, their obedience, or their separation.
- Lamp not out. The royal line went into exile and no son of David reigned in Jerusalem — yet God was not finished with that family.
youths in whom was no blemish, and of goodly countenance, and skilful in all wisdom, and acquainted with knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the language of the Chaldeans.
Daniel and his friends arrive in Babylon as prize captives. They are hand-picked for their looks and ability, then put through a course designed to turn them into useful Babylonians. It raises a question every believer meets: what happens when the world wants your gifts but not your God?
Nebuchadnezzar was not being kind. He was investing. He took the finest captives his conquest had produced and expected a return on them.
Captive Jews were brought into Babylon, that splendid treasure-house, and among them Daniel and his three companions, as told in Daniel 1:3-6... The great Nebuchadnezzar meant to get out of his captives all the profit and progress that their scientific ability and learning could produce. He was just like the leaders of the nations today.
At Babylon, Daniel had two things to learn: a literature and a language. Commentators differ over which language was meant.
At Babylon Daniel and his companions had to acquire "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans," that is, their ancient literature and language. What was that language? In Dan. 2:4 we find that the wise men answered the king in the Syriac language, that is Aramaic... this is held to be not the learned and court language, but the common language of the people.
Older translations say "understanding science" here; the ESV has "understanding learning". The word is the ordinary word for knowledge, and it appears in only one other place in the Bible.
In both the Hebrew and the Greek the words mean "knowledge," and are usually translated that way. They are rendered "science" only in Dan. 1:4, where "knowledge" and "wisdom" are also mentioned, and in 1 Tim. 6:20, where it is science, or knowledge, "falsely so called." In Daniel this no doubt refers to the speculations of the Magi. In the letter to Timothy it refers to the philosophers or Gnostic heretics, whose "knowledge" had no real foundation.
Babylon wanted what these young men could give. It did not want their God.
The world is always ready to make the people of God its servants, and to draw light from their knowledge. But it cannot tolerate them if they stay faithful to their God, obeying His word and keeping a holy separation from evil... He would have them, in a word, stop being Jews and become Chaldeans, and mix into their new religion the light they had received from the word of God. That is where philosophy comes from, even in Christian times — the philosophy Paul earnestly warns us against, as being "according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ" (Col. 2:8).
The plan reached every part of them.
To conform to their world, the minds of these men are to be trained in the learning of the Chaldeans. Their tongues are to speak the Chaldean language. Their bodies are to be fed with the king's delicacies, and their names changed to those of heathen gods.
The plan targeted young men at a vulnerable age, far from home. Its aims were not neutral.
Daniel was sent to the Babylonian university to learn and read the language and literature of the Chaldeans. The teens and early twenties are years full of special danger. These youths had been taken captive and were now far from home and from parental control and influence. The educational system of Babel was not designed to train young men to be spiritual, godly men. Its purpose was different: to train men for its own empire and glory, and to make them good Babylonians. Young people need to know that today. The educational system of this world does not exist to make them good Christians.
The qualities listed in this verse were already in them when they arrived. Babylon recruited character it had not produced.
Nebuchadnezzar was a mighty ruler. But there was something in these men that was morally greater than anything found in Nebuchadnezzar... It is clear that there was moral formation in these men before they reached Babylon.
They sat the king's course. But their real teaching came from somewhere else, and the results showed it.
But that is not all. There was the positive blessing of God in giving them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom... God prepared each of them for what he would afterwards have to fill. God was their teacher, and the trial of their faith was a needed, essential part of their training in His school. Then, when they stood before the king, none was found like them.
- Chosen — Babylon picked the best of God's people for the profit their ability could bring. The world still does the same.
- Claimed — the aim was to make them stop being Jews and become Chaldeans: minds, tongues, food and names all reshaped.
- Taught — "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans" was a real literature and a real language; the "science" of the verse is the ordinary word for knowledge, the word Paul later ties to knowledge "falsely so called."
- Formed — the king admired what Babylon had not put there: moral formation that was in them before they arrived.
- Surpassed — God was their real teacher, and the trial of their faith was part of His school, so no one in the king's court matched them.
And the king appointed unto them a daily provision of the king's delicate food, and of the wine that he drank, to nourish them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.
Babylon's offer to its brightest captives sounds generous: the finest food, the best training, and a place at court at the end. That is what made it dangerous.
The king "assigned" their food. The same word turns up in another story, and one writer points it out while explaining the great fish that swallowed Jonah:
"Prepared" does not mean the fish was created specially for this purpose — though that would be an easy matter for the Maker of the sea and the dry land. It simply means the fish was "appointed" for this service. Translators render the same word this way in Daniel 1:5, of the food intended for Daniel and his companions.
The training was not neutral. Three years of the king's food and the king's lessons had one goal: to leave changed men standing in his presence:
The king, therefore, would have these captives fed with his own food and drinking his own wine. Fed from his resources for three years, they might at the end of it stand in his presence (v. 5). He would have them, in one word, stop being Jews and become Chaldeans. They were to mix into their new religion the light they had received from God's own words. This is where philosophy comes from, even in Christian times. Paul gives a serious warning against that philosophy, as being "according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ" (Col. 2:8).
The schooling had its own agenda, and it was not the agenda of the God of Israel:
Daniel was sent to the Babylonian university to learn and read the language and literature of the Chaldeans... The educational system of Babel was not designed to train young men to be spiritual, godly men. It had an altogether different agenda. Its purpose was to train men for its own empire and greatness; to make them good Babylonians.
For men who had lost their homeland, the offer was hard to turn down:
In exchange for their loss of nationality, these captives are offered a most alluring prospect in a foreign land. They shall have a free course of the best education in the land. The king shall pay for the finest provision to meet their daily needs. And in the end they shall have a high position in the king's palace.
The danger was not the luxury but the source of the food:
"But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank." By nature they would have received such food with thankfulness. But faith acts, and refuses it. The food was connected with the false gods of the country, being part of the daily food of an idolatrous king... Christianity comes in and delivers the conscience from anxiety about such things. "Eat whatever is sold in the meat market," Paul says, "without raising any question on the ground of conscience." The same holds at a feast. But if someone pointed out that certain food had been offered to idols, the Christian was not to eat it — for the sake of the one who said it, and for conscience' sake. The Jew, however, had to keep complete separation.
The pattern of wisdom, food and titles has a modern counterpart:
Those who are destined for a place as religious leaders in the Babylon-like corruption of Christendom must be trained in the religious schools of this world. They must, as it were, be taught "the learning and the language of the Chaldeans." They must benefit from the resources the world provides — "a daily portion of the king's food." And last of all, they must accept such titles and dignities as the world can give.
Refusing the king's table cost them nothing. Their real supply came from somewhere else:
This led Daniel and his friends to decline these luxuries and be content with the simplest food and drink. God honoured the separation they practised in this matter, and He "gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom," as we see in verse 17. The knowledge they had came not from man but from God.
Their captivity fulfilled a prediction spoken long before by the prophet Isaiah. Yet judgment was not the whole story:
The opening verses of our chapter reveal the fulfilment of Isaiah's prediction. But here is what we want to point out: in fulfilling His own word in judgment, God remembered mercy. Out of these very descendants of Hezekiah He raised up witnesses for Himself in the middle of Babylon's idolatrous corruptions.
- Appointed — The king "assigned" their daily food. Scripture uses that same word of the fish appointed to swallow Jonah.
- Aim — The three years of food, wine and learning were meant to turn Jews into Chaldeans. Babylon would mix its own religion with the light they had from God.
- Allure — The offer was free education, the finest daily food, and a high place at the end. The bait was generosity, not force.
- Answer — The food came from an idolatrous king's table. Faith refused what nature would have taken with thanks.
- Aftermath — God honoured their separation and gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom. Their real training came from Him. Out of judgment He raised up witnesses in the heart of Babylon.
Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Jerusalem had fallen, the temple treasures were in Babylon, and the captives now stood inside a pagan palace. So why does Scripture pause to name four young men of Judah — and what happens to their names in a city full of idols?
The capture of these young men was not an accident of war. God had warned Hezekiah about it generations earlier — and He used the same event for mercy.
Hezekiah once received the messengers from the king of Babylon. Their attention flattered him, so he showed them all the treasures of his kingdom. Isaiah was then sent to him with this message: "Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house... shall be carried to Babylon. And some of your own sons... shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon" (Isaiah 39:5-7). The opening verses of our chapter show Isaiah's prediction fulfilled. But note this: in carrying out His own word in judgment, God remembered mercy. Out of these very descendants of Hezekiah He raised up witnesses for Himself in the middle of Babylon's idolatrous corruption.
Each Hebrew name said something about the God of Israel. That is why Babylon replaced them.
Daniel means "God is my judge"; Hananiah, "Beloved of the Lord"; Mishael, "Who is as God"; Azariah, "The Lord is my help." These beautiful names were soon changed to names with pagan meaning, to blot out the very memory of Jehovah. Daniel becomes Belteshazzar (Bel's prince); Hananiah becomes Shadrach (lit up by the sun-god); Mishael becomes Meshach (who is like Shach — Venus); and Azariah becomes Abednego (the servant of Nego).
The new name came with honour attached. One writer sees it as the first move in a longer campaign — flattery first, force later.
Daniel's name was changed to Belteshazzar, which means "Bel's prince," or "he whom Bel favours." This may have been a snare of Satan. By giving him a name and a place of honour tied to the chief god of the land, it would draw Daniel away from the worship of the one true God — and away from loyalty to the God whose name was woven into the name his parents gave him in Israel. The enemy of God and of our souls is that cunning. By both flattery and force he seeks to turn us from loyalty to Christ, whose blessed name is called on us — "Christians." The enemy tries flattery on Daniel and his friends first. When this fails to seduce them into idolatry, he tries the burning fiery furnace and the lions' den.
Israel as a nation had failed as God's witness. Yet the light did not go out; it moved to Babylon.
The people of Israel were God's witnesses in a world wholly given over to idolatry (Isaiah 43:10). God had set them in a high position to shine for Him, but their unfaithfulness cost them that place. Yet He never lacked a small remnant true to His name and His interests. Here, in the capital city of this king who sat in darkness, four of these lights shine out. The light that was despised in Jerusalem is now radiant in Babylon.
The king of Babylon wanted these young men at his court — on his terms.
He would seek to decorate his court with the leaders of God's people. He wanted the royal line, the princes, and men who were good-looking and marked by wisdom, knowledge and learning. The religious world will use the people of God for its own glory. But it cannot tolerate their God, their obedience to His word, or their separation from its own evils.
Every outward support for their faith was gone. They obeyed anyway.
They had lost every privilege of the temple, and the temple itself lay in ruins. They were captives at the mercy of a pagan king, pressed with every sort of alluring temptation. Yet they held the Nazirite's place of true separation through obedience to the word of God. No doubt Daniel's faith and energy acted on his companions and led them to follow him in the path of God's will. But if so, the others were willing to follow. All four are striking proof that God's grace is enough to sustain His servants in the worst circumstances imaginable.
- Named — Scripture names four young men of Judah at the moment judgment falls. God remembered mercy while He carried out His own word.
- Renamed — Each Hebrew name declared something about God. Babylon swapped them for the names of its idols to erase the memory of Jehovah.
- Courted — The world wanted their wisdom and their looks for its court. It did not want their God or their obedience to His word.
- Tested — Flattery came first. The fiery furnace and the lions' den came later. The honour on offer was the opening move, not the last one.
- Shining — The light despised in Jerusalem shone in Babylon. God's grace holds His people when every outward support is gone.