translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: DAN

label: NET study note

text: The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim would be ca. 605 B.C . At this time Daniel would have been a teenager. The reference to Jehoiakim’s third year poses a serious crux interpretum , since elsewhere these events are linked to his fourth year ( Jer 25:1 ; cf. 2 Kgs 24:1 ; 2 Chr 36:5-8 ). Apparently Daniel is following an accession year chronology, whereby the first partial year of a king’s reign was reckoned as the accession year rather than as the first year of his reign. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is following a nonaccession year chronology, whereby the accession year is reckoned as the first year of the king’s reign. In that case, the conflict is only superficial. Most modern scholars, however, have concluded that Daniel is historically inaccurate here.


text: King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from ca. 605-562 B.C .


text: This attack culminated in the first of three major deportations of Jews to Babylon. The second one occurred in 597 B.C. and included among many other Jewish captives the prophet Ezekiel. The third deportation occurred in 586 B.C. , at which time the temple and the city of Jerusalem were thoroughly destroyed.


text: The land of Babylonia ( Heb “the land of Shinar”) is another name for Sumer and Akkad, where Babylon was located (cf. Gen 10:10; 11:2; 14:1, 9 ; Josh 7:21 ; Isa 11:11 ; Zech 5:11 ).


text: It is possible that the word Ashpenaz is not a proper name at all, but a general term for “innkeeper.” See J. J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia), 127, n. 9. However, the ancient versions understand the term to be a name, and the present translation (along with most English versions) understands the word in this way.


text: The word court official (Hebrew saris ) need not mean “eunuch” in a technical sense (see Gen 37:36 , where the term refers to Potiphar, who had a wife), although in the case of the book of Daniel there was in Jewish literature a common tradition to that effect. On the OT usage of this word see HALOT 769-70 s.v. סָרֹיס .


text: The language of the Chaldeans referred to here is Akkadian, an East Semitic cuneiform language.


text: The names reflect a Jewish heritage. In Hebrew Daniel means “God is my judge”; Hananiah means “the Lord is gracious”; Mishael means “who is what God is?”; Azariah means “the Lord has helped.”


text: The meanings of the Babylonian names are more conjectural than is the case with the Hebrew names. The probable etymologies are as follows: Belteshazzar means “protect his life,” although the MT vocalization may suggest “Belti, protect the king” (cf. Dan 4:8 ); Shadrach perhaps means “command of Aku”; Meshach is of uncertain meaning; Abednego means “servant of Nego.” Assigning Babylonian names to the Hebrew youths may have been an attempt to erase from their memory their Israelite heritage.


text: Having failed to convince the overseer, Daniel sought the favor of the warden whom the overseer had appointed to care for the young men.


text: The number ten is sometimes used in the OT as an ideal number of completeness. Cf. v. 20 ; Zech 8:23 ; Rev 2:10 .


text: The Persian king Cyrus’ first year in control of Babylon was 539 B.C . Daniel actually lived beyond the first year of Cyrus, as is clear from 10:1 . The purpose of the statement in 1:21 is merely to say that Daniel’s life spanned the entire period of the neo-Babylonian empire. His life span also included the early years of the Persian control of Babylon. However, by that time his age was quite advanced; he probably died sometime in the 530’s B.C .