1 tn Heb “misled Judah.” The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” here by metonymy for the people of Judah.
2 sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.
3 tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.
4 tn Aram “in that hour.”
5 tn Aram “hand.” So also in v. 17.
6 tn Grk “it”; the referent (the second beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Grk “it was given [permitted] to it [the second beast].”
8 tn Grk “breath,” but in context the point is that the image of the first beast is made to come to life and speak.
9 tn Grk “of the beast”; the word “first” has been supplied to specify the referent.
10 tn Or “forced”; Grk “makes” (ποιεῖ, poiei).
11 tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.
12 tn Grk “and that no one be able to buy or sell.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Although the ἵνα (Jina) is left untranslated, the English conjunction “thus” is used to indicate that this is a result clause.
13 tn The word “things” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context. In the context of buying and selling, food could be primarily in view, but the more general “things” was used in the translation because the context is not specific.
14 tn Grk “except the one who had.”
15 tn Grk “his name or the number of his name.”
16 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
17 tn Some translations consider the word μυστήριον (musthrion, “mystery”) a part of the name written (“Mystery Babylon the Great,” so KJV, NIV), but the gender of both ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) and μυστήριον are neuter, while the gender of “Babylon” is feminine. This strongly suggests that μυστήριον should be understood as an appositive to ὄνομα (“a name, i.e., a mystery”).
18 tn Or “of the witnesses to Jesus.” Here the genitive ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou) is taken as an objective genitive; Jesus is the object of their testimony.
19 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
20 tn Grk “I marveled a great marvel” (an idiom for great astonishment).