Episode Details

The first reading provides us the episode of some Judean youths who were among those chosen by the pagan king to be trained in the Chaldean culture. We witness in their story their efforts at being faithful to God and follow his commandments. They were concerned with not defiling themselves with the food from the king's table. So they arranged with the chief eunuch that a trial be conducted, namely, they be fed only vegetables and water. After ten days they were to be compared with those youths fed from the king's table. The result was that they were more healthy-looking than those nourished by the king. Daniel, who was one of these faithful Israelites, thus, stayed faithful to His God and avoided contamination from pagan food.