Daniel 1:4

Children. Heb. yeladim, here designating a word covering a much wider range of age than the English word “children.” Here it designates “youth,” “young men.” The young counselors who had been brought up with King Rehoboam are called yeladim (1 Kings 12:8). The word is translated “young men” (KJV) because it is obvious that they were not children in the English sense of the word. The same term is applied to Benjamin at about the age of 30, shortly before he went down to Egypt, and when he was the father of 10 sons (Gen. 44:20; cf. ch. 46:21). Hence it is not strange to see the word for “children” applied to youth, of whom one at least, Daniel, had reached the age of 18 years (4T 570). It is worth noticing in this connection that Xenophon, speaking of a later time, says that no young men could enter the service of the Persian kings before they had attained their 17th year (Cyropaedia i. 2).

No blemish. Physical soundness and a handsome form were considered indispensable to officers of high rank among the ancient Orientals, and are considered highly desirable qualities in the modern East.

Chaldeans. This term (Akkadian, Kaldu) designates the members of an Aramaean tribe whose early settlement was in Lower Mesopotamia and who had taken over the rulership of Babylonia when Nabopolassar founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty. The term applies also to a class of scholars at the Babylonian court who were the foremost astronomers of their day. These scholars were equally proficient in other exact sciences, such as mathematics, although they included magic and astrology in their activities. Commentators have been divided in their interpretation of the phrase “learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.” The older view, found among the church Fathers, sees in the phrase a study of Aramaic language and literature, while many modern commentators are inclined to interpret it as meaning the combined scientific and linguistic knowledge of the Chaldeans. All known scientific writings of that time were inscribed on clay tablets in cuneiform script in the Babylonian language. It must therefore be concluded that “the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans” included a thorough training in the classical language and script of the country — that is, in the Babylonian language and in cuneiform writing — in addition to colloquial Aramaic. Since proficiency in the cuneiform script, with its hundreds of characters, was not easy to acquire, a good educational background, a natural ability to learn easily, and the gift of picking up a new language readily would be deemed desirable prerequisites for acceptance into the royal school for future courtiers.