Daniel 1:1-7

New American Standard Bible 1995

The Choice Young Men

1 In the third year of the reign of ^(A)Jehoiakim king of Judah, ^(B)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ² The ^(C)Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the ^(D)vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of ^(E)Shinar, to the house of his ^[a]god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his ^[b](F)god.

³ Then the king ^[c]ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his ^[d]officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the ^[e]royal ^(G)family and of the nobles, ⁴ youths in whom was ^(H)no defect, who were good-looking, showing ^(I)intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for ^[f]serving in the king’s ^[g]court; and he ordered him to teach them the ^[h]literature and ^(J)language of the ^(K)Chaldeans. ⁵ The king appointed for them a daily ration from the ^(L)king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be ^[i]educated three years, at the end of which they were to ^[j](M)enter the king’s personal service. ⁶ Now among them from the sons of Judah were ^(N)Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. ⁷ Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name ^(O)Belteshazzar, to Hananiah ^(P)Shadrach, to Mishael ^(Q)Meshach and to Azariah ^(R)Abed-nego.