Daniel 1:6

Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah . The versions present no difficulty here, only the Septuagint adds a clause to bring this verse into harm . The name means "The Lord Jehovah is gracious." This name is one of the most common in the Bible. Sometimes it is reversed, and becomes Jehohanan or Johanan , and hence "John." The earliest is the head of the sixteenth of the twenty-four courses into which David divided the Hemanites ( 2 Chronicles 25:4 ). In the reign of Uzziah there appears one as a chief captain ( 2 Chronicles 26:11 ). In Jeremiah there are three; most prominent, however, is the false prophet who declared that Jeconiah and all his fellow-captives would be brought back in the space of two years ( Jeremiah 28:15 ). One of the ancestors of our Lord, called in Luke ( Luke 3:27 ) Joanna, the son of Rhess, grandson of Zerubbabel, is called in 1 Chronicles 3:19 Hananiah, and reckoned a son of Zerubbabel. In the Book of Nehemiah there are several persons spoken of as bearing this name, not impossibly as many as six. In New Testament times it was still common: Ananias the husband of Sapphira ( Acts 5:1 ); the devout Jew of Damascus, sent to Paul ( Acts 9:10 ); the high priest in the time of Paul ( Acts 23:2 ). Unlike Hananiah, Mishael is one of the rarer names It occurs as the name of one of the sons of Uzziel, the uncle of Moses and Aaron ( Exodus 6:22 ; Le Exodus 10:4 ), and again as one who stood at Ezra's left hand when he read the Law ( Nehemiah 8:4 ). There is some question as to the meaning of the name. Two interpretations have been suggested; the simplest and most direct is, "Who is what God is;" the other is, "Who is like God." The objection to the first is that the contracted relative is employed, which does not elsewhere appear in this book. This, however, is not insuperable, as the contracted form of the relative was in common use in the northern kingdom, and might, therefore, appear in a name; the objection to the second is that a letter is omitted, but such omissions continually occur. Hitzig refers to ימים , from יום , as a case in point. Azariah, "Jehovah is Helper," is, like Hananiah, a very common name throughout Jewish history It is the name by which Uzziah is called in 2 Kings 14:21 : 2 Kings 15:1 , 2 Kings 15:7 , 2 Kings 15:8 , 2 Kings 15:17 (called Uzziah in 2 Kings 15:13 , 2 Kings 15:30 , as also in 2 Chronicles 27:1-9 .) It is the name of four high priests:

There is also a prophet of this name ( 2 Chronicles 15:1 ) in the days of Asa King of Judah. While this name is so common before the Captivity, it is not so common after it, though there is a captain of the army of Judas Maccabteus called "Azarias." While all the names contain the name of God, either in the covenant form "Jehovah" or the common form "el," yet there is nothing in the names to suggest the history before us. Jewish tradition made them out to be of the royal family; of this there is no certainty. In the time of Jerome it was held they were eunuchs, and thus the prophecy in Isaiah ( Isaiah 39:7 ) was fulfilled. Others have held that Isaiah 56:3 , "Let not the eunuch say, I am a dry tree," had a reference to those captives. So far, however, as we know, eunuchs might be attendants of Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs might bear the state umbrella over their heads, might give the cup to them, might arrange their couch for them, or announce their approach to the harem, but were not their councillors or warriors. That was left for the days of the Byzantine Empire, when the eunuch Narses retained Italy for the empire.