Daniel 1:3

1:3 The king commanded ¹  Ashpenaz, ²  who was in charge of his court officials, ³  to choose ⁴  some of the Israelites who were of royal and noble descent ⁵  –

Daniel 3:6

3:6 Whoever does not bow down and pay homage will immediately ⁶  be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire!”

Daniel 3:11

3:11 And whoever does not bow down and pay homage must be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.

Daniel 8:10

8:10 It grew so big it reached the army ⁷  of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars ⁸  to the ground, where it trampled them.

Daniel 11:5

11:5 “Then the king of the south ⁹  and one of his subordinates ¹⁰  will grow strong. His subordinate ¹¹  will resist ¹²  him and will rule a kingdom greater than his. ¹³ 

Daniel 11:23

11:23 After ¹⁴  entering into an alliance with him, he will behave treacherously; he will ascend to power with only a small force. ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Or “gave orders to.” Heb “said to.”

² sn It is possible that the word Ashpenaz is not a proper name at all, but a general term for “innkeeper.” See J. J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia), 127, n. 9. However, the ancient versions understand the term to be a name, and the present translation (along with most English versions) understands the word in this way.

³ sn The word court official (Hebrew saris) need not mean “eunuch” in a technical sense (see Gen 37:36, where the term refers to Potiphar, who had a wife), although in the case of the book of Daniel there was in Jewish literature a common tradition to that effect. On the OT usage of this word see HALOT 769-70 s.v. סָרֹיס.

⁴ tn Heb “bring.”

⁵ tn Heb “and from the seed of royalty and from the nobles.”

⁶ tn Aram “in that hour.”

¹¹ tn Traditionally, “host.” The term refers to God’s heavenly angelic assembly, which he sometimes leads into battle as an army.

¹² sn In prescientific Israelite thinking the stars were associated with the angelic members of God’s heavenly assembly. See Judg 5:20; Job 38:7; Isa 40:26. In west Semitic mythology the stars were members of the high god’s divine assembly (see Isa 14:13).

¹⁶ sn The king of the south is Ptolemy I Soter (ca. 323-285 B.C.). The following reference to one of his subordinates apparently has in view Seleucus I Nicator (ca. 311-280 B.C.). Throughout the remainder of chap. 11 the expressions “king of the south” and “king of the north” repeatedly occur. It is clear, however, that these terms are being used generically to describe the Ptolemaic king (i.e., “of the south”) or the Seleucid king (i.e., “of the north”) who happens to be in power at any particular time. The specific identity of these kings can be established more or less successfully by a comparison of this chapter with the available extra-biblical records that discuss the history of the intertestamental period. In the following notes the generally accepted identifications are briefly mentioned.

¹⁷ tn Heb “princes.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the subordinate prince mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ tn Heb “be strong against.”

²⁰ tn Heb “greater than his kingdom.”

²¹ tn The preposition מִן (min) is probably temporal here (so BDB 583 s.v. 7.c; cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV), although it could also be understood here as indicating means (so J. Goldingay, Daniel [WBC], 279, n. 23a; cf. TEV, NLT).

²² tn Heb “nation.”