Daniel 1:12-21 ▼

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

13 Then let our appearance be observed before you 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 it was seen that their appearance was better and that they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.

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

17 And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and insight in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

18 Then at the end of the days which the king had spoken of for bringing them in, the commander of the officials brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.

19 And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they stood in service before the king.

20 And as for every matter of wisdom in understanding which the king sought from them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his kingdom.

21 And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.