Daniel 1:1, commentary and pictures

In the third year of Jehoiakim's reign Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem and besieged it, marking the first capture of the city and the beginning of the seventy years' captivity in Babylon. Daniel with Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were carried to Babylon in warfare among the first company of captives, chosen as blameless youth to be taught the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans for service in the king's palace. God permitted the siege and captivity so they could carry to its king and nobles the knowledge of Him as the only true God, representing Him without compromise and exalting Him before heathen nations. The verse opens their history as a comprehensive illustration of true temperance and firm integrity, when appointed a daily allowance from the king's table they purposed not to defile themselves but requested pulse and water and proved healthier after ten days. Their faithful choice was followed by growth in physical, mental and spiritual strength, with clear intellect, keen apprehension and exceptional wisdom for making known the knowledge of God and truth.

Siege and Captivity Setting

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it, marking the first siege and capture of the city early in Jehoiakim's reign. That date establishes the historical setting for Daniel's captivity and for the test of food and drink that follows, whose outcome demonstrates the value of abstaining from intoxicating drink and indulged appetite. The giving of Daniel's prophecies belongs amid those circumstances of the Jewish nation when Babylon came against Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar in warfare carried Daniel and his companions to Babylon as members of the first company of captives brought from Jerusalem into the land of Shinar. With them went part of the vessels of the house of God, and the carrying away included the king, nobles, and priests. Those carried away included youth specially chosen and blameless, to be taught the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans and to study for service in the king's palace and court. Their success there required diligent effort and use of their abilities, while depending on God's grace.

The verse marks the beginning of the seventy years' captivity in Babylon. It happened very soon before Jeremiah predicted in the fourth year of Jehoiakim that the nations would serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Daniel knew Jeremiah's prophecies at the time they were given and lived through the time after the first and second sieges of Jerusalem when false prophets claimed the captivity would be short.

Besides Daniel and his faithful companions there was another class carried captive because they constantly went into idolatry, being permitted to be torn from their homes and given all they desired of Babylon's idolatrous practices. Thus the righteous were taken away together with the unrighteous to a place where the name of Jehovah would not come to their ears, where songs of praise and thanksgiving would not be heard, where God's miracle-working power would not be seen, and where prophets with messages of warning and reproof and counsel would be few and far between. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were in Babylon as captives in a strange foreign land, at that time the greatest kingdom in the world. They were not brought into the king's court by their own pride or ambition but placed there by Infinite Wisdom, and though captives they were not overcome by their enemies because God helped them. The record of Daniel 1:1-12 is to be read for recognizing the spirit that opposes truth and righteousness and works against God's faithful people.

Divine Purpose and Witness

God permitted Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem and to take Daniel and his companions captive to Babylon, at that time the greatest kingdom in the world, so that they might carry to its king and nobles the knowledge of Him as the only true God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. The capture of Jehovah's worshipers and the removal of the vessels of the Temple appeared to proclaim Babylon's religious superiority. Yet the humiliation that Israel's departure from God had brought upon them was turned into the means of displaying before Babylon God's supremacy, the holiness of His requirements, and the sure results of obedience, through the testimony of those who remained loyal to Him.

Their presence in the land of captivity was to carry out God's purpose by giving heathen nations the blessings that come through a knowledge of Jehovah. They were to represent Him and never to compromise with idolaters, bearing their faith and their name as worshipers of the living God as a high honor. Their faithfulness brought them opportunities to exalt the true God before the nations of earth. Among those carried captive were men as true as steel to principle, who would not be corrupted by selfishness but would honor God at the loss of all things. In prosperity and adversity they honored God, and God honored them.

The Hebrew children had been made strong in faith and constant in service of the living God by instruction received in the homes of their parents and by conscientious observance of the commands of Holy Scripture. Taken to Babylon in warfare, they resolved there to obey God's commandments and to avoid every form of idolatry, valuing their early education by practicing what they had been taught. The verse begins the record of young Hebrew captives who stand as God's witnesses among heathen nations, with four young men appealing to a palace attendant in the royal court. Daniel in Babylon as a youth was tested and proved, and because he stood firm to principle he became a representative man and a pattern of integrity. His life serves as encouragement to those who must endure trial and temptation, showing what a person may become when united with the God of wisdom.

Temperance and Faithful Integrity

This verse opens the history of Daniel and his Hebrew associates in the court of Babylon, which gives a comprehensive and forcible illustration of true temperance and its attendant blessings and exemplifies Christian temperance, integrity and firmness. Their experience teaches that temperance in eating and drinking helps preserve physical powers and build mental strength. Their example shows the courage to hold to a firm purpose and stand by it.

They were chosen as captives to be educated in the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans that they might stand in the king's palace, where the king appointed them a daily allowance from his table of food and wine that included meats pronounced unclean by the law of Moses and rich high foods. Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's meat nor the wine, and with his companions requested simpler fare of pulse and water. The officer in charge hesitated for fear their appearance would suffer and he would fall into disfavor with the king. A ten days' trial was granted, at the end of which they were found far more healthy in appearance than those who ate the king's dainties, so the simple pulse and water they first requested continued as their food.

The siege introduces the setting for the captivity and the test of their food and drink, whose outcome demonstrates the value of abstaining from intoxicating drink and indulged appetite. The chapter shows the benefits of self-denial and strict temperance in eating and drinking for present and future good, because intelligence depends on what is eaten and drunk. Their education in strict temperance was for that good, and by refusing wine and the king's high foods and holding to the course they had laid out as students, they kept clear intellect and clear presentation of matters that give a knowledge of God and the truth, which God wanted brought before the king and their associates, and in this they were successful.

The chapter is full of valuable instruction on consistency in eating and health when tested on appetite, presenting youth who may feel they lack advantages in food yet remain consistent as Daniel and his companions endured their test. Their success required diligent effort and use of their abilities, while depending on God's grace. Students should learn from their example, practice restraint in appetite, and take care of the organs that make blood.

Their firm choice to honor God was followed by growth in physical, mental, and spiritual understanding and by exceptional wisdom and skill. God honored that right course with strength and comeliness and intellectual power, keen apprehension, unimpaired mental vigor, erect form, fair countenance, undimmed senses, and untainted breath. In the fear of God they decided at the risk of the king's displeasure to be true to the religion of their fathers by obeying the divine law both physical and moral, though their position in companionship with those who neither knew nor feared the true God was a trial of loyalty with dangers and difficulties.

God honors students who, while being tested, seek knowledge and excellence in mental ability. Their faithfulness brings heaven's cooperation, so that Daniel receives from an angel the king's lost dream and its interpretation when the king threatens to kill all the wise men and astrologers for failing to tell it.