Daniel 1

1 In the third year of the reign of Y’hoyakim king of Y’hudah [Let Him (God) Be Praised] came N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel (to jumble, or a confused medley of sounds; confusion; gate of the deity) (Babylon) [confusion] unto Yerushalayim [Foundation of Peace], and besieged it.

2 And the Lord-Adonai (The Father) [Greatest Above All Things] gave Y’hoyakim king of Y’hudah [Let Him (God) Be Praised] into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered]: which he carried into the land of Shin’ar [country of two rivers] to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.

3 And the king spoke unto Ashp’naz [I will make prominent the sprinkled] the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring [certain] of the people of Yisra’el [He Holds Onto The Heel Of God], and of the king’s seed, and of the princes;

4 Children in whom [was] no blemish, but well favoured, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as [had] ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Kasdim [clod-breakers].

5 And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

6 Now among these were of the children of Y’hudah [Let Him (God) Be Praised], Dani’el [God is Judge], Hananyah [God has favoured], Michael [Who is what God is], and ‘Azaryah [Yehovah has helped]: