2:12 Because of this the king got furiously angry 1 and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. 2:13 So a decree went out, and the wise men were about 2 to be executed. They also sought 3 Daniel and his friends so that they could be executed.
16:14 A king’s wrath 10 is like 11 a messenger of death, 12
but a wise person appeases it. 13
1 tn Aram “was angry and very furious.” The expression is a hendiadys (two words or phrases expressing a single idea).
2 tn The Aramaic participle is used here to express the imminent future.
3 tn The impersonal active plural (“they sought”) of the Aramaic verb could also be translated as an English passive: “Daniel and his friends were sought” (cf. NAB).
4 tn Aram “in that hour.”
5 tn This is sometimes taken as a comparative: “[some of the] strongest.”
6 sn There is a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the specific nature of these items of clothing.
7 tn Aram “into the midst of the furnace.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.
8 tn Aram “from me is placed an edict.”
9 tn Aram “speaks negligence.”
10 sn This proverb introduces the danger of becoming a victim of the king’s wrath (cf. CEV “if the king becomes angry, someone may die”). A wise person knows how to pacify the unexpected and irrational behavior of a king. The proverb makes the statement, and then gives the response to the subject.
11 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.
12 tn The expression uses an implied comparison, comparing “wrath” to a messenger because it will send a message. The qualification is “death,” an objective genitive, meaning the messenger will bring death, or the message will be about death. E.g., 1 Kgs 2:25, 29-34 and 46. Some have suggested a comparison with the two messengers of Baal to the god Mot (“Death”) in the Ugaritic tablets (H. L. Ginsberg, “Baal’s Two Messengers,” BASOR 95 [1944]: 25-30). If there is an allusion, it is a very slight one. The verse simply says that the king’s wrath threatens death.
13 tn The verb is כָּפַּר (kapar), which means “to pacify; to appease” and “to atone; to expiate” in Levitical passages. It would take a wise person to know how to calm or pacify the wrath of a king – especially in the ancient Near East.
14 tn Or “power.”
15 tn Or “who delivered me over to you.”
16 tn Grk “has the greater sin” (an idiom).