Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Daniel 1:17

17. God gave them knowledge--(Ex 31:2, 3; 1Ki 3:12; Job 32:8; Jas 1:5, 17).

Daniel had understanding in ... dreams--God thus made one of the despised covenant-people eclipse the Chaldean sages in the very science on which they most prided themselves. So Joseph in the court of Pharaoh (Ge 40:5; 41:1-8). Daniel, in these praises of his own "understanding," speaks not through vanity, but by the direction of God, as one transported out of himself. See my Introduction, "Contents of the Book."