Daniel 1:2-4
Amplified Bible
2 The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles of the house of God; and he brought them into the land of [a]Shinar, to the house of his god, and brought the articles into the treasury of his god.(A)
3 And the [Babylonian] king told Ashpenaz, the chief of his [b]officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some from the royal family and from the nobles,(B) 4 young men without blemish and handsome in appearance, skillful in all wisdom, endowed with intelligence and discernment, and quick to understand, competent to stand [in the presence of the king] and able to serve in the king’s palace. He also ordered Ashpenaz to teach them the literature and language of the [c]Chaldeans.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Daniel 1:2 I.e. southern Babylonia.
- Daniel 1:3 Or eunuchs, and so throughout.
- Daniel 1:4 The Chaldeans dominated and ruled Babylonia from 625 b.c. until their empire fell in 539 b.c., but they were known as early as 1000 b.c. as an aggressive, tribal people in the southern region of Babylonia. They were highly skilled in both the science of astronomy and the pseudo-science of astrology. They kept meticulous records of celestial motion and correctly calculated the length of a year to within just a few minutes. Babylon, their capital city, was the center of trade and learning in the western part of Asia. The classical literature of the Chaldeans was written in cuneiform, but the common language, both written and spoken in Babylon, was Akkadian increasingly influenced by Aramaic.
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