|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
| But that wasn’t all he took—he began to take people also, young royal men. There were many deportations of people into Babylon, but Daniel and his friends were probably in the first deportation around 604 BC. The exiling of people continued until after the fall of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzer in 587 BC, when the temple was destroyed and thousands of men, women, and children were killed. Once in Babylon, Daniel and other Israelite men were put into training to join the king’s staff. In preparation for this duty, their names were changed from Hebrew names, which they received when they were circumcised and were linked to God: Daniel – God is my judge, Hananiah – Yahweh has been gracious, Mishael – Who is what God is?, and Azariah – Yahweh has helped.1 Their names were then changed to different ones, Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which were linked to the service of the foreign idols of Babylon. The young men were also prepared physically for their service for the king, and that included eating the palace’s meat and wine. Daniel and his friends did not want to defile themselves by eating this food because it is very possible that the food was associated in some way to idol worship.2 The meat also may not have been prepared in the correct fashion for a Hebrew and could have been from unclean animals. It was considered a sin for a Hebrew to eat of unclean animals—those that did not both chew their cud and have split hooves. Instead of eating the unclean meat, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah ate vegetables and had only water to drink. Continued... |
|||||||||
| Back |
Page 6 of 10
|
||||||||
