Mishael

Also known as: Meshach · Family: Judah · Role: child of Judah · First appears: Daniel 1

Mishael was given the Babylonian name Meshach by Ashpenaz and entered royal service after Melzar replaced the youths’ royal food and wine with pulse and water. God granted Mishael and the other three youths knowledge and wisdom, and when Ashpenaz brought them before Nebuchadnezzar, the king judged them ten times better than the wise men of his realm.

When Nebuchadnezzar ordered the wise men slain in Daniel 2, Daniel told Mishael and his companions, then secured Meshach’s appointment over the affairs of Babylon’s province. In Daniel 3, Mishael joined the refusal to serve Nebuchadnezzar’s gods or worship his image: “we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Nebuchadnezzar had him and the others cast into the fiery furnace, but God delivered them unharmed; afterward, Nebuchadnezzar promoted Meshach and his companions in the province of Babylon.