Bible Strands
Daniel 1:17
To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. And Daniel had insight into all kinds of visions and dreams.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports the outcome of the ten-day dietary test (v. 16), just before the four are presented to Nebuchadnezzar (v. 18). The grammatical subject is God (ha-Elohim), not the Babylonian instructors.
The words — נָתַן (natan, "he gave") is the verb of direct divine bestowal, the same word that carries God's grant to Solomon in 1 Kings 3:12. Its object מַדֶּע (madaʿ, "knowledge") is paired with וְהַשֶּׂכֶל (ve-hashekel, "and insight"), naming a single compound faculty rather than two separate ones.
The thread — The pattern of God as the active giver of understanding recurs in 1 Kings 3:12, Job 32:8, and James 1:5. In each case the source is divine, not institutional or self-generated.
Why it lands — The verse strips the Babylonian academy of credit for what it produced. A reader must decide whether their own competence is a gift or an achievement, and what that distinction costs.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 3:12 behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been another like you, nor will there ever be.
- James 1:5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
- Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
- Daniel 2:21 He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
- Daniel 2:23 To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, because You have given me wisdom and power. And now You have made known to me what we have requested, for You have made known to us the dream of the king.”
- Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
- Colossians 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
- Psalms 119:98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me.
- Acts 6:10 but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
- Numbers 12:6 He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream.