to test · verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
servants
עֲבָדֶ֖יךָ'a.va.Dei.kha
H5650
a servant · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
ten
עֲשָׂרָ֑ה'a.sa.Rah
H6235
ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
days
יָמִ֣יםya.Mim
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
give
וְיִתְּנוּve.yi.te.nu-
H5414
to give · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine plural
pulse
הַזֵּרֹעִ֛יםha.ze.ro.'Im
H2235
something sown (only in the plural) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
eat
וְנֹאכְלָ֖הve.no.khe.Lah
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal infinitive construct, 1st person common plural
water
וּמַ֥יִםu.Ma.yim
H4325
water · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
drink
וְנִשְׁתֶּֽהve.nish.Teh
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal, 1st person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Genesis 1:29-30 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the…
Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he mig…
Daniel 1:16 Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 1:8-16
We observe here, very much to our satisfaction,
I. That Daniel was a favourite with the prince of the eunuchs (Dan 1:9), as Joseph was with the keeper of the prison; he had a tender love for him. No doubt Daniel deserved it, and recommended himself by his ingenuity and sweetness of temper (he was greatly beloved, Dan 9:23); and yet it is said here that it was God that brought him into favour with the prince of the eunuchs, for every one does not meet with acceptance according to his merits. Note, The interest which we think we make for ourselves we must acknowledge to be God's gift, and must ascribe to him the glory of it. Whoever are in favour, it is God that has brought them into favour; a…
pulse--The Hebrew expresses any vegetable grown from seeds, that is, vegetable food in general [GESENIUS].
Adam Clarke on Daniel 1:12
Give us pulse to eat - הזרעים hazzeraim, seeds or grain, such as barley, wheat, rye, and peas, etc. Though a vegetable diet might have produced that healthiness of the system in general, and of the countenance particularly, as mentioned here; yet we are to understand that there was an especial blessing of God in this, because this spare diet was taken on a religious account.
John Gill on Daniel 1:12
Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days, Here Daniel manifestly includes his companions, and makes his request for himself and them; desiring that they might be tried ten days with different sort of food and drink, and see whether any alteration would be made in them for the worse; which was a proper time for such a trial; for in that time it might be reasonably supposed that their food, if it had any bad effect on them, would appear. Saadiah makes these ten days to be the days between the first day of the year and the day of atonement; but without any foundation:
and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink; instead of the king's meat, pulse, beans, pease, vetches, lentiles,…
The Church Fathers
Verse 12. "I beg thee, try us thy servants for ten days, and let pulse be given us to eat and water to drink." His faith was so incredibly great that he not only promised he would be in good flesh by eating the humbler food, but he even set a time-limit. Therefore it was not a matter of temerity but of faith, for the sake of which he despised the sumptuous fare of the king.
The exception of certain kinds from use as food is a partial fast.… Daniel and his companions, preferring as they did a diet of vegetables and the beverage of water to the royal dishes and decanters, were found "more handsome" … and in addition were more spiritually cultured. For God gave to the young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature, and to Daniel in every word, and in dreams and in every kind of wisdom; which [wisdom] was to make him wise in this very thing also, namely, by what means the recognition of mysteries was to be obtained from God.
But they wished to prove to him that beauty and strength does not come by earthly food which was supplied to the humans, but that the grace of God which was given through the Word supplies beauty and strength, and so they said to him, "Then test your slaves for ten days and give us vegetables and we shall eat them and drink water and our appearances shall be seen and you shall see the appearances of the boys who eat from the table of the king and, just as you see, in this way do to us." [Daniel 1:12-13] Do you see the unalterable faith of the youths and the immutable fear of God? They asked for intervals of time, ten days, so that in this they may prove that they are not able to procure grace from God differently from other men, but only by believing the preaching of the word through Jesus.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Daniel — God is my judge, or judge of God. (1.) David’s second son, “born unto him in Hebron, of Abigail the Carmelitess” (1 Chr. 3:1). He is called also Chileab (2 Sam. 3:3). (2.) One of the four great…
Daniel, The Book Of — stands at the head of a series of writings in which the deepest thoughts of the Jewish people found expression after their close of the prophetic era. Daniel is composed partly in the vernacular…
Hananiah — Jehovah has given. (1.) A chief of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chr. 8:24). (2.) One of the sons of Heman (1 Chr. 25:4, 23). (3.) One of Uzziah’s military officers (2 Chr. 26:11). (4.) Grandfather of the…
Daniel 1:11-13
11. Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
11. Et dixit Daniel ad Meltsar, quem constituerat praefectus eunuchorum super Danielem, Hananiah, Misael, et Azariah,
12. Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.
12. Proba [89] servos tuos diebus decem, et apponantur nobis de leguminibus, [90] et comedemus, [91] aet aquae, quas bibamus.
13. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.
13. Et inspiciantur coram facie t…
The command of the king, that the young men should be fed with the food and wine from the king's table, was to Daniel and his friends a test of their fidelity to the Lord and to His law, like that to which Joseph was subjected in Egypt, corresponding to the circumstances in which he was placed, of his fidelity to God (Gen 39:7.). The partaking of the food brought to them from the king's table was to them contaminating, because forbidden by law; not so much because the food was not prepared according to the Levitical ordinance, or perhaps consisted of the flesh of animals which to the Israelites were unclean, for in this case the youths were not under the necessity of refraining from the wine…
vegetables and water: Such a diet would steer clear of offensive foods (1:8) and, as a kind of fast, would demonstrate mourning over their exile in a foreign land.
Rashi on Daniel 1:12
test Heb. נַס an expression of (נִסָיוֹן) testing.
some pulse a type of beans instead of the food.
Self-Denial · Exemplified: Daniel — Exemplified: Daniel
Temperance · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
