Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. 3
6:19 In the morning, at the earliest sign of daylight, the king got up and rushed to the lions’ den.
10:16 “I 6 am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, 7 so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
1 sn The phrase like that of a god is in Aramaic “like that of a son of the gods.” Many patristic writers understood this phrase in a christological sense (i.e., “the Son of God”). But it should be remembered that these are words spoken by a pagan who is seeking to explain things from his own polytheistic frame of reference; for him the phrase “like a son of the gods” is equivalent to “like a divine being.”
2 tn Aram “answered and said.”
3 tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.
4 tn The meaning of Aramaic דַּחֲוָה (dakhavah) is a crux interpretum. Suggestions include “music,” “dancing girls,” “concubines,” “table,” “food” – all of which are uncertain. The translation employed here, suggested by earlier scholars, is deliberately vague. A number of recent English versions follow a similar approach with “entertainment” (e.g., NASB, NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). On this word see further, HALOT 1849-50 s.v.; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 37.
5 tn Aram “his sleep fled from him.”
6 tn Grk “Behold I.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
7 sn This imagery of wolves is found in intertestamental Judaism; see Pss. Sol. 8:23, 30.