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, Jer_52:25. The word translated
eunuch signifies also
chamberlain; such was
Hatach, Est_4:5; such were
Bigthana and
Teresh, Est_6:2, and
Harbonah, Est_7:9, and
Ashpenaz in the text, the master of the king’s eunuchs, who had set
Melzar over Daniel and his companions, Dan_1:11.
Here was fulfilled what the prophet Isaiah had foretold king Hezekiah, Isa_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.