Daniel 1:8-17

Living Bible

⁸But Daniel made up his mind not to eat^[a] the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the superintendent for permission to eat other things instead. ⁹Now as it happened, God had given the superintendent a special appreciation for Daniel and sympathy for his predicament. ¹⁰But he was alarmed by Daniel’s suggestion.

“I’m afraid you will become pale and thin compared with the other youths your age,” he said, “and then the king will behead me for neglecting my responsibilities.”

¹¹Daniel talked it over with the steward who was appointed by the superintendent to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹²and suggested a ten-day diet of only vegetables and water; ¹³then, at the end of this trial period the steward could see how they looked in comparison with the other fellows who ate the king’s rich food and decide whether or not to let them continue their diet.

¹⁴The steward finally agreed to the test. ¹⁵Well, at the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the youths who had been eating the food supplied by the king! ¹⁶So after that the steward fed them only vegetables and water, without the rich foods and wines!

¹⁷God gave these four youths great ability to learn, and they soon mastered all the literature and science of the time; and God gave to Daniel special ability in understanding the meanings of dreams and visions.

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Footnotes

Daniel 1:8 made up his mind not to eat, literally, “determined that he would not defile himself with.” The defilement was probably in eating pork or other foods outlawed in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3-21. He asked the superintendent for permission to eat other things instead, literally, “He asked the superintendent to allow him not to defile himself.”