Daniel 1:3 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

These here called eunuchs were chief among the king's servants, and they are called eunuchs because many of them were such of old among all the princes of the East, and at this day, but they were not all such, Jeremiah 52:25. The word translated eunuch signifies also chamberlain; such was Hatach, Esther 4:5; such were Bigthana and Teresh, Esther 6:2, and Harbonah, Esther 7:9, and Ashpenaz in the text, the master of the king's eunuchs, who had set Melzar over Daniel and his companions, Daniel 1:11. Here was fulfilled what the prophet Isaiah had foretold king Hezekiah, Isaiah 39:7. Some think Daniel and his companions were made eunuchs in a strict sense, which doth not appear to be probable; but rather to be bred up in the court for officers, and thereby to alienate their minds from the religion of their country, and from seeking the welfare and return of their people; but God had otherwise appointed by this education of them, as appears in many signal testimonies of the presence and power of God with them, for the conviction of idolaters that God was above all gods.

Daniel 1:3

3 And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes;