mel'-zar (ha-meltsar; Septuagint Abiesdri, Theod. Hamelsad): Possibly a transliteration of the Babylonian Ameluucur, the officer to whom was entrusted the bringing-up of Daniel and his three companions (Daniel 1:11 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "the steward," margin "Hebrew: Hammelzar"). It has been suggested that the name is not the name of a person, but denotes the office of guardian, like the Babylonian maccaru. In this case the "l" would come by dissimulation from the first of the two "s" sounds, which on its side has come from an assimilated "n", the root being nacaru, "to protect" "to guard."

R. Dick Wilson

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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