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1–7. Taking Daniel and his friends to Babylon. 8–17. Their life and upbringing at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. 18–21. The king tests the wisdom of his friends. Dan.1:1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The first historical fact noted in the Bible from the life of the prophet Daniel - his taking into captivity in Babylon (3-6) coincides in time with the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar “in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah.” Found in all ancient translations of the book of Daniel, this date is at odds with the testimony of the prophet Jeremiah. The latter does not know about the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar not only in the third year of Joachim, but even in the fourth. Marked by this year, his prophetic speech speaks of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Judea as an event still to come (Jer. 25:1, 9). It marks the beginning of 70 years of captivity (11–12); therefore, it is the first time the Chaldeans invaded Judea; there was no earlier one (until Joachim was 4 years old). A comparison of Art. 15–26 leads to the same conclusion. the same 25 ch. book Prophet Jeremiah from chapter 46. Submission to Nebuchadnezzar, together with the Jews of other nations, starting with the Egyptians, as indicated in the first place, will follow, according to the instructions of the second, after the battle of Carchemish. And since this latter falls in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim of Judah (Jer. 46:2), it is obvious that until that time Judea and Jerusalem were not subject to invasion by the Babylonians. One of the most reliable means of eliminating this disagreement is considered by exegetes to be a slightly different translation of verse 1 compared to the accepted one. Namely, based on the fact that the Hebrew verb “bo”, conveyed in the present case by the phrase: “came” (“in the third year... Nebuchadnezzar came”) also means “to set out, begin, undertake a journey” (Jon. 1:3; cf. Gen. 37:10; Ex. 6:11; Ex. 9: 1; Ex. 10: 1; Num. 32: 6, etc.), this entire passage is read as follows: “in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar came out (from Babylon) to Jerusalem and besieged it.” The Prophet Daniel thus notes only the beginning of the campaign, and then indicates its result, without determining either the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s arrival to Jerusalem or the duration and end of the siege of the city. According to other exegetes (Rashi, Saadias), the third year of Joachim means the third year from the time of his betrayal of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:2). But such an understanding is incompatible with the biblical expression: “in the third year of the reign of Joachim” - the third year from the accession to the throne, but not from the time of the attempt to restore independence. Daniel 1:2. And the Lord gave into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, and part of the vessels of the house of God, and he sent them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and brought these vessels into the treasury of his god. According to the view of the ancients, including the Assyro-Babylonians, the power of a known people was in full accordance with the power of its national god (2 Kings 18:33–35), so that the defeat of a nation by another was considered a defeat of its god, a victory over it by the god of the victors (Jer. 46:14–15). As a sign of this, the Assyro-Babylonian conquerors, along with military booty, captured statues of the gods of the conquered tribes, brought them as gifts to their national deities, and placed them as trophies in the churches of these latter. “I,” says, for example, Sorgon in one of his inscriptions, took the city of Muzazir, took with me the god Khaldi with other gods and a great many of their sacred vessels.” «Обитателей Бит-Янина и их богов, – рассказывает Сеннахерим, – я увел с собою». “I,” notes Assurbanipal, “returned to the Babylonian city of Erech the image of the goddess Nana, taken from there as a war trophy to Susa by the Elamite king Kubur Nanhundi.” Nebuchadnezzar was guided by the same considerations when he sent to Shinar (the general name for the regions of the Babylonian kingdom), for lack of images of the Most High, the vessels of the Jerusalem kingdom and placed them in the treasury located at the church of his God Bal (cf. 1 Ezra 1:7; 1 Ezra 5:14). According to the biblical account, Nebuchadnezzar was not directly involved in the delivery of the vessels to Babylon: he “sent” them. And this small detail could not be more confirmed and explained by the story of the Chaldean historian Berosus (late 4th century, early 3rd century BC) about Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against the Egyptian pharaoh Necho, during which he conquered Jerusalem. Having defeated Necho in the battle of Carchemish and after that taken Syria, Phenicia, Palestine and Egypt from him, Nebuchadnezzar, says Berosus, heard about the death of his father Nabopolassar. Ввиду этого он поручил своим полководцам отправиться на родину со всей добычей, с войском и пленниками из иудеев, финикиян, сирийцев и египтян, а сам с небольшим отрядом поспешил в Вавилон кратчайшими путем через пустыню и, прибыв в столицу, вступил на престол. (И. Флавий. Древности. 2 ч., с. 162–163). Dan.1:3. И сказал царь Асфеназу, начальнику евнухов сво­их, чтобы он из сынов Израилевых, из рода царского и княжеского, при­вел Dan.1:4. отроков, у которых нет никакого телесного недостатка, красивых видом, и по­нятливых для всякой науки, и ра­зу­меющих науки, и смышленых и годных служить в чертогах царских, и чтобы научил их книгам и языку Халдейскому. Nebuchadnezzar's order to educate certain noble Jewish captive youths at the royal court is not an exceptional phenomenon in the history of the Assyrian-Babylonian rulers. When conquering a country, they often captured small boys of noble origin, gave them an excellent education at court along with the children of the first dignitaries of the state, and subsequently provided them not only with corresponding positions in the civil service, but also made them rulers of entire regions. “The Babylonian Belib, who grew up like a little dog in my palace, says Sennacherib in one inscription, I installed at Sumir in Akkad as ruler over them.” To educate such children, special schools were established at the courts of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, the educational subjects of which can be judged from the recently opened Nineveh library of Assurbanipal. Its tiles contain manuals on the alphabet, grammar, history, a Chaldean-Turanian dictionary, a dictionary of ancient inscriptions, a dictionary of Assyrian synonyms and entire expressions; records of legal content, information about epithets and attributes of various gods, about the main churches; fragments of mythological content, etc. The totality of all this knowledge and information could not be more consistent with the remark of the book. the prophet Daniel that he was taught “the books and language of the Chaldeans,” the language of Babylonian science. The execution of the royal decree is entrusted to the “chief of the eunuchs” Aspenaz, not eunuchs in the literal sense, i.e. eunuchs, but the highest court officials (Gen. 37:36 cf. 1 Kings 22:9; 2 Kings 20:18; 2 Kings 25:19; Isa. 39:7). He had supervision over all those who lived and served at the royal court; He also selects future court officials from among the noble captive youths - his immediate subordinates. Dan.1:5. And the king assigned them daily food from the royal table and wine, which he himself drank, and ordered them to be raised for three years, after which they were to appear before the king. Распоряжение Навуходоносора вполне соответствует восточному обычаю, по которому все придворные получали пищу с царского стола. Так, при персидском дворе ежедневно приготовлялся, по словам Ктезия, обед на 15 000 человек (ср. 4Цар.25:29–30 ; Иер.52:33–34 ). Dan.1:6. Между ними были из сынов Иудиных Даниил, Анания, Мисаил и Азария. Из третьего стиха с несомненностью следует, что пророк Даниил происходил из колена Иудина и принадлежал или к царскому или к знатному княжескому роду, но к которому именно, за отсутствием сведений, неизвестно. Иосиф Флавий считает его родственником иудейского царя Седекию; из христианских писателей одни причисляют его к потомкам Давида ( Симеон Метафраст ), другие (Епифаний) к одной из самых знатных фамилий иудейских вельмож. Также неопределенны сведения и о генеалогии его друзей. Dan.1:7. И пере­именовал их начальник евнухов – Даниила Валтасаром, Ананию Седрахом, Мисаила Мисахом и Азарию Авденаго. Daniel's refusal to eat food and wine from the royal table was caused by the fear of being defiled - of violating the requirements of the Law of Moses about food unclean for Jews. The very dishes prepared from the meat of animals and birds prohibited by Moses (Lev.11:4-19; Deut.14:7-18) and, perhaps, even sprinkled with the blood of sacrificial animals could be desecrating; the method of their preparation that does not comply with the law (Lev. 11:32–38) and, finally, the whole atmosphere of eating food: before eating it, idols were called upon, sacrifices were made in their honor, and hymns of praise to the gods were sung during dinner (Dan. 5:4). Daniel's desire to avoid defilement could have been all the stronger because the prophets predicted about him (Hos. 9:3; Ezek. 4:13–14). Dan.1:9. God granted Daniel the favor and favor of the chief of the eunuchs; Daniel 1:10. and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who himself has appointed food and drink for you; If he sees your faces thinner than those of the youths your peers, then you will make my head guilty before the king. Despite all his goodwill toward Daniel, Asphenaz does not agree to his request to change his food. Он боится навлечь на себя гнев Навуходоносора. And this is understandable. The possible thinness of Daniel and his friends when changing food could give rise to various explanations unfavorable for the courtier, starting with an indication of his careless execution of the royal decree (“he himself has determined your food and drink”) and ending with the assumption of theft: he takes the food assigned to the young men for himself. A similar idea is made by I. Flavius, supplementing the biblical story with the remark that Daniel asked Asphenaz to take the food he was allotted for himself, and to send him and his friends vegetable food. Daniel 1:11. Then Daniel said to Hamelsar, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah: Daniel 1:12. сделай опыт над рабами тво­ими в тече­ние десяти дней; пусть дают нам в пищу овощи и воду для питья; Dan.1:13. and then let our faces and the faces of those youths who feed on the royal food appear before you, and then do to your servants as you see. Daniel 1:14. He obeyed them in this and tested them for ten days. Asphenaz's answer made it clear that it was essentially indifferent to him what kind of food Daniel and his friends would eat. He carries out the royal decree out of fear of responsibility before the king and is ready to cancel it if it is removed from him. Taking advantage of this, Daniel turned with his request to his immediate superior, Amelsar, i.e., the cupbearer, since the Hebrew name “gameltsar” (Persian “messar” butler), standing with a certain member, is the name of a position, not a person. And this latter, as a person not responsible to Nebuchadnezzar for the young men, because the supervision of them was entrusted to him by Aspenaz (Dan. 1:11), agrees with the desire of Daniel. His compliance is also explained by the fact that eating plant foods was initially limited to ten days, a period during which the thinness of the young men could not be too noticeable. Daniel 1:15. After ten days, their faces turned out to be more beautiful, and their bodies were fuller than all those youths who ate the royal dishes. Daniel 1:16. Then Amelsar took their food and wine to drink and gave them vegetables. The flourishing appearance of Daniel and his friends while eating plant foods served as sufficient grounds for the cupbearer not to resist their wishes during the rest of his upbringing. Daniel 1:17. And God gave these four youths knowledge and understanding of every book and wisdom, and to Daniel he also granted understanding of all visions and dreams. Daniel 1:18. At the end of those days, when the king ordered them to be presented, the chief of the eunuchs presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 1:19. And the king spoke to them, and of all the youths there was none like Daniel, Ananias, Mishael and Azariah, and they began to serve before the king. Daniel 1:20. And in every matter of wise understanding, whatever the king asked them about, he found them ten times higher than all the mystic scholars and magicians who were in his entire kingdom. Daniel's refusal to eat pagan food was a manifestation of his piety, for which he is endowed by God with superior human wisdom, manifested both in the assimilation of Chaldean science and in the ability to interpret dreams and visions (Dan. 2:17-19, 27-28). “It was not the Chaldean training,” says Blessed Theodoret, “that made Daniel meaningful and filled with all wisdom, but by God’s grace, having been granted the meaning and wisdom of all knowledge, he turned out to be the best of all.” Daniel 1:21. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. Hebrew preposition "aq" Russian. “before,” defining a known state of a thing or person before this or that time, does not exclude the continuation of the same state beyond this limit of time, more precisely, it leaves aside the question of the further continuation or end of this state (cf. Gen. 8:7; Ps. 109:1). Therefore, this verse does not conflict with Daniel 10:1. He only says that Daniel lived and acted at the royal court during the entire period of the Babylonian captivity and does not touch on his fate in the future (cf. Jer. 1: 3 and ch. 40 etc.). You might be interested in: