Dan 1:4-5, 17 | JFB | STEP | 4. no blemish —A handsome form was connected, in Oriental ideas, with mental power. "Children" means youths of twelve or fourteen years old. teach . . . tongue of . . . Chaldeans —their language and literature, the Aramaic-Babylonian. That the heathen lore was not altogether valueless appears from the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses; the Eastern Magi who sought Jesus, and who may have drawn the tradition as to the "King of the Jews" from , &c., written in the East. As Moses was trained in the learning of the Egyptian sages, so Daniel in that of the Chaldeans, to familiarize his mind with mysterious lore, and so develop his heaven-bestowed gift of understanding in visions ( ).

Daniel 1:4-5

4. no blemish—A handsome form was connected, in Oriental ideas, with mental power. "Children" means youths of twelve or fourteen years old.

teach . . . tongue of . . . Chaldeans—their language and literature, the Aramaic-Babylonian. That the heathen lore was not altogether valueless appears from the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses; the Eastern Magi who sought Jesus, and who may have drawn the tradition as to the "King of the Jews" from Da 9:24, &c., written in the East. As Moses was trained in the learning of the Egyptian sages, so Daniel in that of the Chaldeans, to familiarize his mind with mysterious lore, and so develop his heaven-bestowed gift of understanding in visions (Da 1:4, 5, 17).

5. king's meat—It is usual for an Eastern king to entertain, from the food of his table, many retainers and royal captives (Jer 52:33, 34). The Hebrew for "meat" implies delicacies.

stand before the king—as attendant courtiers; not as eunuchs.

Daniel 1:17

17. God gave them knowledge— (Ex 31:2, 3; 1Ki 3:12; Job 32:8; Jas 1:5, 17).

Daniel had understanding in . . . dreams—God thus made one of the despised covenant-people eclipse the Chaldean sages in the very science on which they most prided themselves. So Joseph in the court of Pharaoh (Ge 40:5; 41:1-8). Daniel, in these praises of his own "understanding," speaks not through vanity, but by the direction of God, as one transported out of himself. See my Introduction, "CONTENTS OF THE BOOK."