Daniel 1:7

Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names,.... Other names, Chaldee names, according to the names of the gods of that country, for honour and glory, as Saadiah observes; which was done either to

Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.

Names; that is, other names: this was done by the subtle instigation of Satan, that they might renounce their names received in circumcision, by assuming names imposed relating to the idol gods, being a profanation and a further degree of their apostacy; for Daniel had the name of Belteshazzar, or Baltasar, from the great Babylonian idol Baal or Bel, &c. This was by the king’ s command, and herein he put forth an act of his sovereignty. Thus Adam, ,20. Thus Pharaoh did, ; he gave Joseph the name of Zaphnath-paaneah. And Pharaohnechoh changed the name of Eliakim, Josiah’ s son, to Jehoiakim, . And the king of Babylon turned the name of Mattaniah to Zedekiah, . The Lord changed the name of Sarai to Sarah, of Abram to Abraham, of Jacob to Israel. Thus the Lord changed Simon’ s name to Cephas or Peter, .

Daniel 1:7 Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel [the name] of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.Ver. 7. Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names.] Not without the command of the king, as desirous to naturalise them, and by changing their right names, which had the names of God in them, El and Jah, to make them forget their religion; but that was better rooted than to be so easily razed out, though these new names were shrewd temptations to apostasy and idolatry, as being compounded by the names of the Babylonish gods, and means to make them honourable among the Chaldeans.

Verse 7. Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names] This change of names, Calmet properly remarks, was a mark of dominion and authority. It was customary for masters to impose new names upon their slaves; and rulers often, on their ascending the throne, assumed a name different from that which they had before. דניאל DANIEL signifies "God is my Judge." This name they changed into בלטשאצר BELTESHATSTSAR; in Chaldee, "The treasure of Bel," or "The despository of the secrets (or treasure) of Bel." הנניה HANANIAH signifies, "The Lord has been gracious to me," or "He to whom the Lord is gracious." This name was changed into שדרך SHADRACH, Chaldee, which has been variously translated: "The inspiration of the sun;" "God the author of evil, be propitious to us;" "Let God preserve us from evil." מישאל MISHAEL signifies "He who comes from God." Him they called מישך MESHACH, which in Chaldee signifies, "He who belongs to the goddess Sheshach," a celebrated deity of the Babylonians, mentioned by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 25:26. עזריה AZARIAH, which signifies "The Lord is my Helper," they changed into אבד נגו ABED-NEGO, which in Chaldee is "the servant of Nego," who was one of their divinities; by which they meant either the sun, or the morning star; whether Jupiter or Venus. The vicious pronunciation of this name should be carefully avoided; I mean that which lays the accent on the first syllable, and hurries to the end, without attending to the natural division of the word Abed-Nego.

7. And the prince of the eunuchs gave names unto them: unto Daniel he gave, &c.] as R.V. ‘Prince’ (Heb. sar, i.e. here, governor, superintendent, 1 Kings 9:22 [‘rulers’], 1 Kings 22:26) is a synonym of the rab of Dan 1:3 (cf. Genesis 37:36 with Jeremiah 39:9). The practice of giving a person a new name, when admitted into the public service of a foreign country, is well attested in the case of Egypt (see not only Genesis 41:45, but also Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 517 f.), and was probably usual elsewhere. There is an example, though it is not quite parallel, quoted from the reign of the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, when Neco’s son was made viceroy of Athribis under the Assyrian name of Nabu-uǎ ?κzib-anni (‘Nebo saves me’). In the present instance the change has the effect in each case of obliterating the name of God: Daniel, ‘God is my judge’; Ḥ ?ananiah, ‘Yah is gracious’; Mishael, ‘Who is what God is?’; Azariah, ‘Yah hath holpen.’ Belteshazzar] i.e. balβṭ ?su-uṣ ?ur, ‘protect his life!’; probably elliptical for Bκl-balβṭ ?su-uṣ ?ur, ‘Bel, protect his life!’ The name (which recurs Daniel 2:26, Daniel 4:8-9; Daniel 4:18-19, Daniel 5:12) is quite distinct from Belshazzar (see on Daniel 5:1). Shadrach] Of uncertain meaning, but explained plausibly by Friedr. Delitzsch as Shudur-Aku, ‘the command of Aku’ (Aku being the Sumerian equivalent of Sin, the Semitic name of the Moon-god); cf. the proper name Kibξt-Ishtar, ‘the word, or command, of Ishtar.’ Meshach] Explained by Delitzsch, somewhat less satisfactorily, as a hybrid word, partly Hebrew and partly Babylonian, properly Mξsha-Aku, ‘Who is what Aku is?’, cf. Mishael above, and the Babylonian names Mannu-ki-Rammβn, ‘Who is like Rammβn (Rimmon)?’, and Mannu-ki-ilu, ‘Who is like God?’ Abed-nego] generally recognized as a corruption of ‘Abed-nebo, ‘servant of Nebo’ (Isaiah 46:1). Proper names, compounded with ‘Abd (or ‘Ebed), ‘servant,’ are common in most Semitic languages; and, though it is not the usual word for servant in Babylonian, Babylonian names compounded with it occur. Indeed, the name Abed-nebo itself has been found in a bilingual (Assyr. and Aram.) inscription (Schrader, KAT[183][184] ad loc.); it is also, as Prof. Bevan remarks, met with as that of a heathen Syrian long after the Christian era (Cureton’s Ancient Syriac Documents, p. 14). [183] AT. Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O.T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the original, which is given on the margin of the English translation. [184] Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O.T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the original, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names - This practice is common in Oriental courts.

6, 7. It was quite the common thing for Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian kings to take new names themselves on special occasions, or give new names to members of the royal family.