Daniel 1:4
Children in whom there was no blemish, well favoured, and skillful in all wisdom, acute in knowledge, and instructed in science, and such as might stand in the king's palace, that he might teach them the learning, and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
Open Daniel 1:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- pueros in quibus nulla esset macula, decoros forma, et eruditos omni sapientia, cautos scientia, et doctos disciplina, et qui possent stare in palatio regis, ut doceret eos litteras et linguam Chaldæorum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- νεανίσκους οἷς οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῖς μῶμος καὶ καλοὺς τῇ ὄψει, καὶ συνιέντας ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ γιγνώσκοντας γνῶσιν καὶ διανοουμένους φρόνησιν, καὶ οἷς ἐστιν ἰσχὺς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἑστάναι ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ διδάξαι αὐτοὺς γράμματα καὶ γλῶσσαν Χαλδαίων.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- יְלָדִ֣ים אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֵֽין בָּהֶ֣ם כָּל מאום וְטוֹבֵ֨י מַרְאֶ֜ה וּמַשְׂכִּילִ֣ים בְּכָל חָכְמָ֗ה וְיֹ֤דְעֵי דַ֨עַת֙ וּמְבִינֵ֣י מַדָּ֔ע וַאֲשֶׁר֙ כֹּ֣חַ בָּהֶ֔ם לַעֲמֹ֖ד בְּהֵיכַ֣ל הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וּֽלֲלַמְּדָ֥ם סֵ֖פֶר וּלְשׁ֥וֹן כַּשְׂדִּֽים
Haydock's commentary
Blemish. Deformed people were excluded the throne, or the king's presence. (Procop. 1.)
Science; well educated, or apt to learn. They were first to be taught the Chaldean letters, which then differed from the Hebrew. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome Against Jovinianus, Book I
25. What folly it was to include Elijah and Elisha in a list of married men, is plain without a word from me. For, since John Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and John was a virgin, it is clear that he came not only in Elijah’s spirit, but also in his bodily chastity. Then the passage relating to Hezekiah might be adduced (though Jovinianus with his wonted stupidity did not notice it), in which after his recovery and the addition of fifteen years to his life he said, “Now will I beget children.” It must be remembered, however, that in the Hebrew texts the passage is not so, but runs thus: “The father to the children shall make known thy faithfulness.” Nor need we wonder that Huldah, the prophetess, and wife of Shallum, was consulted by Josiah, King of Judah, when the captivity was approaching and the wrath of the Lord was falling upon Jerusalem: since it is the rule of Scr …