Daniel 1:6

Among these. This expression shows that other young men were selected for training in addition to the four mentioned by name. These four are doubtless mentioned because of the uniqueness of their experience. Their unwavering loyalty to God earned for them great rewards in worldly honor and spiritual blessing (see chs. 2:49; 3:30; 6:2; 10:11).

Daniel. Meaning, “God is my judge.” In the OT the name appears first as that of one of David’s sons (1 Chron. 3:1), and then as the name of a priest in the 5th century (Ezra 8:2; Neh. 10:6). However, the name was already known in Ugarit (Ras Shamrah) in the middle of the second millennium B.C. as that of a legendary, righteous king, whom some scholars have erroneously identified with the Daniel mentioned by Ezekiel (see Eze. 14:14; 28:3). That the name Daniel was very common among Semitic people is evident from the fact that it is found among the Babylonians, the South Arabic Sabeans, as well as among the Nabataeans — the successors of the Edomites — and among the Palmyrenes of northern Arabia.

Hananiah. Meaning, “Yahweh is gracious.” Hananiah was a common Hebrew name borne by at least 14 different individuals mentioned in the OT. The name is also found in the Akkadian transliteration, Hatianiyama, as that of a Jew living in Nippur in the 5th century. On another cuneiform document from Nippur the name is scratched in clay in Aramaic characters. It is also found in later Jewish inscriptions, and in the Aramaic papyri from Elephantine.

Mishael. Meaning probably, “who belongs to God?” The name was borne by several Biblical characters before and after the Exile (see Ex. 6:22; Neh. 8:4).

Azariah. Meaning, “Yahweh helps.” The name appears frequently in the Bible. Outside of the Bible it is found incised on jar handles excavated in Palestine, and is found also in cuneiform sources in the form Azriau.