Another demand that Nebuchadnezzar made of the puppet government in Jerusalem was that some of the brightest young Jews be deported to Babylon, to be trained for government service. To be chosen for this honor, the young men, probably in their teens, had to meet some rigid qualifications. To begin with, they had to be members either of the royal family or of one of the distinguished families of Israel. Josephus, Jewish historian of the first century A.D., claims that all four of the young men mentioned here were from the royal family, although the Bible is silent about this.
The young men chosen for special training had to be “young men without any physical defect, handsome. . . .” If they were to be a credit to the king’s court, they had to have a pleasing appearance. Some of the physical qualifications that the prospective government servant had to meet are illustrated by an ancient Babylonian text. It discourages anyone from seeking a high office who “has any imperfection of limb or of countenance, whose eyes are not sound, who has any teeth missing, who has lost a finger, whose countenance has a sickly look or who is pimpled” (G. Contenau, Everyday Life in Babylon and Assyria, page 281).
In order to study the literature of Babylon, the young men were going to have to learn a language much different from their native Hebrew, a language written not with letters representing individual sounds of the alphabet but with wedge-shaped characters representing various syllables. These young men, therefore, had to be intelligent and quick to understand. It has been suggested that their three-year course of study probably included training in astronomy and astrology, mathematics (the ancient Babylonians had divided the circle into 360 degrees and the hour into 60 minutes), natural history, mythology, agriculture, and architecture. The best students would undoubtedly be picked for important positions in the government.
The statement “among these were some from Judah” seems to imply that the young men chosen for training in Babylon came from various countries that Nebuchadnezzar had conquered.
Put yourself in the place of the four young Jewish men. In the prime of their young adulthood they were snatched from home and family and friends and plunged into a heathen culture. Yet even in this apparent tragedy we can see the opportunity God was giving these young sons of his to fulfill one of the purposes he had had in mind in raising up the nation of Israel. Israel was to serve as a light to the nations, to spread the reputation of the one true God.
Very soon these teenagers had some unusual decisions to make. In particular, they had to react quickly to three major changes the heathen Babylonians wanted to introduce into their lives. As has been indicated, they were to immerse themselves in the study of a heathen culture. Second, they were to adopt heathen names, to help them establish a new identity in their new homeland. We can recognize the meanings of their Hebrew names; each name contains one of the names of Israel’s God. “El” is one of the Hebrew names for God; the element “-iah” is an abbreviation of the Hebrew name Yahweh. Daniel means “God is my Judge”; Mishael means “Who is what God is?” (“Who is comparable to God?”); Hananiah means “Yahweh is gracious”; Azariah means “Yahweh helps me.” The meanings of their new Babylonian names have not been satisfactorily identified, although it seems that the first syllable of Daniel’s new name is the name of the god the Babylonians considered to be the ruler of earth.
The third demand that the Babylonians made of the four young Jews was that they eat heathen food. For the three years of their training they were to eat and drink “a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table.”
How did the young men react to these changes? The first one caused no problem. The four men realized that they had been transplanted by God into a heathen culture and that, following the example of Moses, who had been “educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22), they could learn the language and literature of Babylon without believing its falsehoods.
Nor did the young men protest when their names were changed. God had placed them under the power of the Babylonians; the heathen Babylonians could call them whatever they wanted. It was a different matter, however, with the third requirement made of the young Jews.