Daniel 1:4

King Nebuchadnezzar wanted only men who were very healthy, handsome/good-looking, wise, well-educated, capable of learning many things, and suitable for working in the palace. He also wanted to teach them the Babylonian language and have them read things that had been written in the Babylonian language.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in 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 tongue of the Chaldeans.

In Context

3Then Nebuchadnezzar commanded Ashpenaz, the chief official in his palace, to bring to him some of the Israeli men whom they had brought to Babylon. He wanted men who belonged to important families, including the family of the King of Judah.

5The king commanded his servants, “Give them the same kind of food and wine that is given to me. Train them for three years. Then they will become my servants.”

Read all of Daniel 1

Cross References

Leviticus 21:18No one who is blind or lame or deformed, or whose face is disfigured,

Judges 8:18Then Gideon said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “The men you killed near Tabor Mountain, what did they look like?” They replied, “They were like you; they all looked like they were sons of a king.”

Proverbs 22:29Know/Learn [RHQ] this about those who do their work very skillfully: They will quit working for ordinary people and will start working for kings because the kings will want people like that to work for them.

Daniel 1:17And God gave to us four young men wisdom and the ability to study many things that Babylonians had written and studied. And he also gave to me the ability to understand the meaning of visions and dreams.

Daniel 2:2The next morning he summoned his men who worked magic, fortune-tellers, those who worked sorcery, and those who studied the stars. Because he had forgotten what he had dreamed, he insisted that they tell him what he had dreamed. As they stood there in front of the king,

Daniel 2:10The men who studied the stars replied, “There is no one on the earth who can do what you ask! There is no king, even a great and mighty king, who has ever asked his men who work magic or his fortune-tellers or men who study the stars to do something like that!

Matthew Henry on Daniel 1:2-8

Daniel The book of Ezekiel left the affairs of Jerusalem under a doleful aspect, all in ruins, but with a joyful prospect of all in glory again. This of Daniel fitly follows. Ezekiel told us what was seen, and what was foreseen, by him in the former years of the captivity: Daniel tells us what was seen, and foreseen, in the latter years of the captivity. When God employs different hands, yet it is about the same work. And it was a comfort to the poor captives that they had first one prophet among them and then… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Daniel 1:4