Daniel 1:3

Ashpenaz. A name appearing in the cuneiform texts from Nippur of the 5th century in the slightly different form Ashpazanda, but in Aramaic incantation texts, also from Nippur, in the form Aspenaz. Though the meaning is still obscure the name has been thought to indicate Persian origin. It is possible that this high officer was a Persian. Many foreigners won rank and honor in the service of the Chaldeans.

Master of his eunuchs. The Hebrew title rab-saris, “chief eunuch,” appears also in an Aramaic text written in 682 B.C. In Babylonian inscriptions we find as its equivalent the title rab sha reshi, literally, “the chief of the one on the head [of the king].” The title was applied to the royal confidant.

It has frequently been debated whether the term saris was used to designate only officers who were eunuchs in the literal, physical sense of the word, that is, castrated, or whether saris was used in a general way for any type of royal officer. A clear-cut answer to this question cannot be given. However, Assyrian pictorial representations of court life indicate clearly, by showing a distinction of facial features, such as the absence or presence of beards, that the king was surrounded by officers who were literal eunuchs as well as by those who were not. They indicate furthermore that the literal eunuchs seem to have been in the majority. Some of the greatest men in Assyrian history belonged to this class, as, for example, Daian-Ashshur, the grand vizier of Shalmaneser III, along with many military commanders and other high officers. Isaiah prophesied that some of Hezekiah’s descendants would become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon (Isa. 39:7). Some commentators have held that Daniel and his three companions were included in this prophecy.

Israel. After the destruction of Samaria in 723/722 B.C., when the ten northern tribes ceased to exist as a separate nation, the kingdom of Judah remained the sole representative of the descendants of Jacob or Israel. Hence, the name Israel is frequently employed during the Exile and in the postexilic period to designate the representatives of the southern kingdom (see Eze. 14:1; 17:2; etc.; Ezra 3:1, 11; etc.).

King’s seed. When Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem in 605 B.C. he took hostages from the royal house of Judah as well as from the first families of that unhappy country.

It was an old custom of conquerors to carry away princely hostages to guarantee the loyalty of the conquered foe. Such a practice is reported in the annals of Thutmose III of Egypt, who, after defeating an alliance of Syrian and Palestinian rulers at the battle of Megiddo in the 15th century B.C., allowed the defeated kings to retain their thrones, but carried to Egypt one prince from each of his defeated enemies. In Egypt they were educated in the Egyptian way of life, and when one of the satellite kings of Palestine or Syria died, one of the deceased’s sons, educated in Egypt and friendly to the Pharaoh, was put on the vacant throne.

Princes. Heb. partemim, a loan word from Old Persian fratama, “nobles,” basically meaning “foremost.” Partemim occurs elsewhere in the Bible only in Esther (chs. 1:3; 6:9). The presence of this and other Persian loan words in Daniel can easily be accounted for on the reasonable assumption that the first chapter of Daniel was written in the 1st year of Cyrus, when Persian influence had become strong (see Dan. 1:21).