10 and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would 1make me forfeit my head to the king.”

11 But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,

12 “Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be agiven some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

13 “Then let our appearance be 1observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

14 So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.

15 At the end of ten days their appearance seemed abetter and 1they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.

16 So the overseer continued to 1withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept agiving them vegetables.

17 As for these four youths, aGod gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of 1literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of bvisions and dreams.

18 Then at the end of the days which the king had 1specified 2for presenting them, the commander of the officials 3presented them before Nebuchadnezzar.

19 The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like aDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they 1bentered the king’s personal service.

20 As for every matter of awisdom 1and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them bten times cbetter than all the 2dmagicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.

21 And Daniel 1continued until the afirst year of Cyrus the king.