Daniel 1:3 Commentary and Bible Study

‘And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs,’ – who is described later as a prince, possibly even the first officer of state at the time in Babylon. He is called ‘the master of the eunuchs’, which is a term to describe high court officials. He was the chief of staff or at least the principle of the college for Nebuchadnezzar’s colonial government circle, though there is a dispute about which. ‘That he should bring certain of the children [or youths] of Israel.’ Specifically, they would be of the king’s seed, of royal blood, or children of princes; they would be noble youths. We don't know exactly how many there were: five, ten, fifteen? The intention of Nebuchadnezzar would be to have them, first of all, as trophies. His practice was to fill his court with the youngsters gathered out of his various conquered countries, and train them, brainwash them, and program them to be children of his empire, and to be courtiers in the palace: in effect, trophies of his conquests. So he wanted the very best. But also he would use them as regional governors and send them back to their lands in due course, having proved their loyalty to Babylon, and so they would be significant people, linchpins in his administration all over the empire. The king may also have wanted some Hebrew ability in his national learning. Therefore they were not so young they knew nothing of their own Hebrew ways. Daniel is customarily thought to be aged between fourteen and seventeen, or maybe as old as nineteen – we remember that he is still serving seventy years later. That was the age for training up in the Persian court. Why not choose young men in their twenties or thirties? Because they would not be pliable enough. Daniel and his friends had to be old enough to be mature, but young enough to be brainwashed and reprogrammed, so that they ended up more Babylonian than Jewish if sent back to their native lands. So a number of the noble children of Jerusalem were brought, and then subjected to various examinations. Daniel was among these, and the four named young men – perhaps as the most faithful to Jehovah – are singled out in the Book of Daniel, and their lives are in some degree followed.They had to be prime specimens. It is stated in few words in verse 4: ‘children [youths] in whom there was no blemish favour.’ They had to be physically perfect with fine physiques, such as the ancients respected: tall, strong, able to reflect the splendour of Babylon. There must be no handicaps, no defects, but they must be well-favoured; the original rather indicates handsome, and that was possibly because the Babylonians thought that good looks were usually connected with intelligence. It isn't so, but that was a belief in those days. They must be ‘skilful in all wisdom’, able to handle wisdom, fast to learn, ‘and cunning in knowledge’, intelligent with things, ‘understanding science’; they had to pass various tests. We have no idea what tests these were, but it sounds as though they were rather sophisticated tests. They had the selection process well worked out. ‘And such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace’, which probably means there was a certain poise about them or deportment by which they could say, ‘This person is trainable to have authority, to be a diplomat, to do something in the king's service.’ They must have eloquence, and be able to represent themselves. They were not so young that these more sophisticated characteristics had not yet emerged. They must be cheerful, not moody, churlish, or temperamentally defective. They would then make good personal officers. What character do people read in our faces? Evidently they seemed to know how they would pick them out. They also had to have the capability of learning the tongue of the Chaldeans – the learning rather indicates learning to write as well as to speak. They were to be exposed to the knowledge and learning of the Chaldeans and given access to the great Royal library. In all this Nebuchadnezzar had his purpose, but God had his higher purpose.