⁸Daniel made up his mind not to harm himself by eating the king’s rich food and drinking the king’s wine. So he asked the chief-of-staff for permission not to harm himself in this way.

⁹God made the chief-of-staff kind and compassionate toward Daniel. ¹⁰The chief-of-staff told Daniel, “I’m afraid of my master, the king. The king determined what you should eat and drink. If he sees that you look worse than the other young men your age, he would have my head cut off.”

¹¹The chief-of-staff put a supervisor in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel said to the supervisor, ¹²“Please test us for ten days. Give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³Then compare us to the young men who are eating the king’s rich food. Decide how to treat us on the basis of how we look.”

¹⁴The supervisor listened to them about this matter and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵After ten days they looked healthier and stronger than the young men who had been eating the king’s rich food. ¹⁶So the supervisor took away the king’s rich food and wine and gave them vegetables.

¹⁷God gave these four men knowledge, wisdom, and the ability to understand all kinds of literature. Daniel could also understand all kinds of visions and dreams.

¹⁸At the end of the three-year training period, the chief-of-staff brought all the young men to Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹The king talked to them and found no one like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah among all of them. So these four men served the king. ²⁰Whenever the king asked them about things that required wisdom and insight, he found that they knew ten times more than all the magicians and psychics in his whole kingdom.

²¹Daniel served the royal palace until the first year of King Cyrus ⸤of Persia⸥.

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