Daniel 1:12
New International Version
“Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.

New Living Translation
“Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said.

English Standard Version
“Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Berean Standard Bible
“Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given only vegetables to eat and water to drink.

King James Bible
Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.

New King James Version
“Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

New American Standard Bible
“Please put your servants to the test for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

NASB 1995
“Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

NASB 1977
“Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

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

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

Christian Standard Bible
“Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Please test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

American Standard Version
Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
“Test your Servants ten days, and let them give us grains to eat and water to drink

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Prove now thy servants ten days; and let them give us pulse, and let us eat, and let us drink water:

Contemporary English Version
"For the next ten days, let us have only vegetables and water at mealtime.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Try, I beseech thee, thy servants for ten days, and let pulse be given us to eat, and water to drink:

English Revised Version
Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"Please test us for ten days. Give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Good News Translation
"Test us for ten days," he said. "Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

International Standard Version
"Please test your servants for ten days and let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Try thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.

Literal Standard Version
“Please try your servants [for] ten days; and they give to us from the vegetables and we eat, and water, and we drink;

Majority Standard Bible
“Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given only vegetables to eat and water to drink.

New American Bible
“Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

NET Bible
"Please test your servants for ten days by providing us with some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

New Revised Standard Version
“Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

New Heart English Bible
"Test your servants for ten days; and let them give us vegetables to eat, and water to drink.

Webster's Bible Translation
Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.

World English Bible
“Test your servants, I beg you, ten days; and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Young's Literal Translation
'Try, I pray thee, thy servants, ten days; and they give to us of the vegetables, and we eat, and water, and we drink;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Daniel's Faithfulness
11Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12“Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given only vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13Then compare our appearances with those of the young men who are eating the royal food, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”…

Cross References
Revelation 2:10
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Daniel 1:11
Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

Daniel 1:13
Then compare our appearances with those of the young men who are eating the royal food, and deal with your servants according to what you see."

Daniel 1:16
So the steward continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and he gave them vegetables instead.


Treasury of Scripture

Prove your servants, I beseech you, ten days; and let them give us vegetables to eat, and water to drink.

pulse to eat.

Daniel 1:16
Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.

Genesis 1:29,30
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat…

Deuteronomy 8:3
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

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Daniel 1
1. Jehoiakim's captivity.
3. Ashpenaz takes Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
8. They refusing the king's portion do prosper with pulse and water.
17. Their proficiency in wisdom.














(12) Ten days.--The number "ten" is treated as a round number here, and in Daniel 1:20. (Comp. Genesis 31:41.) By adopting this mode of life, Daniel resumes the simple diet commonly used by his ancestors previously to their entering Canaan (Deuteronomy 12:15-16; Deuteronomy 26:5; Deuteronomy 26:9). This simplicity of life prevailed till the early times of David (1Samuel 17:17-18). At the Persian court, in later times, Daniel changed his rule of life (Daniel 10:3), the infirmities of age beginning to tell upon his constitution. . . . Verse 12. - Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. The Septuagint seems to have read yutan, "let there be given," instead of yitnu, "let them give." Zero'im, "seeds" (σπερμάτων, Theodotion), "pulse" (ὀσπρίων, Septuagint and Authorized and Revised Versions). This word occurs only here; it differs, however, only by the second vowel from zeruim in Isaiah 61:11, and there it is rendered as by Theodotion here, σπέρματα. As the vowels were not written for centuries after the latest critical date of Daniel, it is in the highest degree absurd to ground any argument on the pronunciation affixed to the word by these late scribes, probably with as great caprice as made them maintain to all time "suspended letters" here and there in the text, or sometimes begin a word with a final mere. Professor Bevan regards this word a s possibly a scribe's mistake for zeronim, a word with the same meaning, which occurs in ver. 16, and is found in the Talmud. He might more naturally regard zero'him as a scribe's mistake for zero'im. As, however, the word is Aramaic, occurring both in the Eastern and Western dialects, it may be a case where the original word shines through. Prove thy servants ten days. The word used for "prove' is that frequently used of God in relation to men, as in Genesis 22:1," God did prove Abraham." Calvin thinks that Daniel made this request because he had been directed by the Divine Spirit. We would not for one moment deny that all wisdom comes down from above, and that it is the Spirit of the Almighty that giveth understanding, yet the suggestion was a reasonable one, the period was long enough to have given signs that it affected them injuriously, and yet not so long but the evil effects might easily be removed. Ten days. It may be that this is merely a round number - an easily marked period - but an experiment would have a definite period. It is approximately the third of a revolution of the moon, and as the Babylonians were attentive observers of the movements of the heavenly bodies, especially of the moon, "ten days" is likely enough to be a period with them, as certainly a week was. Moreover, among all the nations of antiquity numbers were credited with special powers, as all who have studied Greek philosophy know. Pythagoras rested the whole universe on number. This theory, in which to some extent he was followed by Plato, seems to have been derived from Assyrian, if not Babylonian sources. Thus Lenormant, in 'La Magic,' gives a dialogue between Hea and his son Hilgq-mulu-qi. Everything depends on knowing "the number." It may be noted, as bearing on this, that in the bas-reliefs portraying a feast from the palace of Asshurbanipal, the guests are seated in messes of four round small tables. If, then, as is probable, all these young cadets at the Babylonian court sat in the royal presence, they would have a table to themselves, and thus the peculiarity of their meal would not be patent to the whole company. Had the number of friends been more, they would have been conspicuous: had they been fewer, they would have been observed by those added to make up the number. Their request to be allotted to eat only pulse and to drink only water, had not, as we have already said, anything necessarily of the asceticism of the Essenes. They, the Essenes, rather started from Daniel and his friends. Maimonides tells us that there were three kinds of zeronim - tbu'ah, "crops," wheat, barley, millet, etc.; gatonith, "small crops," peas, beans, lentils; geenah, "garden seeds," such as mint, anise, and cummin. The English versions and the Septuagint agree in regarding the second of these classes as here intended. There is this to be said, that seeds are the most nourishing form of vegetable diet. Aben Ezra suggests "rice" as the seeds used for this purpose; but as, just as in all hot climates, vegetables and fruits of all sorts were largely consumed in Babylon, definition is unnecessary. To the present day among the inhabitants of the district around ancient Babylon, indeed, over the Levant generally, dates and raisins, with grain, and in the season fresh fruit, form the staple food. Daniel really prayed to live as the common people.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
“Please
נָ֥א (nā)
Interjection
Strong's 4994: I pray', 'now', 'then'

test
נַס־ (nas-)
Verb - Piel - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 5254: To test, to attempt

your servants
עֲבָדֶ֖יךָ (‘ă·ḇā·ḏe·ḵā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5650: Slave, servant

for ten
עֲשָׂרָ֑ה (‘ă·śā·rāh)
Number - masculine singular
Strong's 6235: Ten

days.
יָמִ֣ים (yā·mîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3117: A day

Let us be given
וְיִתְּנוּ־ (wə·yit·tə·nū-)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

only vegetables
הַזֵּרֹעִ֛ים (haz·zê·rō·‘îm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2235: Something sown, a vegetable

to eat
וְנֹאכְלָ֖ה (wə·nō·ḵə·lāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive imperfect Cohortative - first person common plural
Strong's 398: To eat

and water
וּמַ֥יִם (ū·ma·yim)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 4325: Water, juice, urine, semen

to drink.
וְנִשְׁתֶּֽה׃ (wə·niš·teh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive imperfect Cohortative if contextual - first person common plural
Strong's 8354: To imbibe


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OT Prophets: Daniel 1:12 Prove your servants I beg you ten (Dan. Da Dn)
Daniel 1:11
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