Discovery BoxDaniel 1:12-16 
Context1:12 “Please test your servants for ten days by providing us with some vegetables to eat and water to drink. 1:13 Then compare our appearance 1 with that of 2 the young men who are eating the royal delicacies; 3 deal with us 4 in light of what you see.” 1:14 So the warden 5 agreed to their proposal 6 and tested them for ten 7 days.
1:15 At the end of the ten days their appearance was better and their bodies were healthier 8 than all the young men who had been eating the royal delicacies. 1:16 So the warden removed the delicacies and the wine 9 from their diet 10 and gave them a diet of vegetables instead.
1 tn Heb “let our appearance be seen before you.”
2 tn Heb “the appearance of.”
3 tn Heb “delicacies of the king.” So also in v. 15.
4 tn Heb “your servants.”
5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the warden mentioned in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “listened to them with regard to this matter.”
7 sn The number ten is sometimes used in the OT as an ideal number of completeness. Cf. v. 20; Zech 8:23; Rev 2:10.
8 tn Heb “fat of flesh”; KJV, ASV “fatter in flesh”; NASB, NRSV “fatter” (although this is no longer a sign of health in Western culture).
9 tn Heb “the wine of their drinking.”
10 tn The words “from their diet” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.
