Daniel 2:18

2:18 He asked them to pray for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he ¹  and his friends would not be destroyed along with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Daniel 2:49--3:1

2:49 And at Daniel’s request, the king ²  appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the administration of the province of Babylon. Daniel himself served in the king’s court. ³ 

Daniel’s Friends Are Tested

3:1 ⁴ King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden ⁵  statue made. ⁶  It was ninety feet ⁷  tall and nine feet ⁸  wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Daniel 4:30

4:30 The king uttered these words: “Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal residence ⁹  by my own mighty strength ¹⁰  and for my majestic honor?”

Daniel 7:1

Daniel has a Vision of Four Animals Coming up from the Sea

7:1 In the first ¹¹  year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had ¹²  a dream filled with visions ¹³  while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Aram “Daniel.” The proper name is redundant here in English, and has not been included in the translation.

² tn Aram “and Daniel sought from the king and he appointed.”

³ tn Aram “was at the gate of the king.”

³ sn The LXX introduces this chapter with the following chronological note: “in the eighteenth year of.” Such a date would place these events at about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8). However, there seems to be no real basis for associating the events of Daniel 3 with this date.

⁴ sn There is no need to think of Nebuchadnezzar’s image as being solid gold. No doubt the sense is that it was overlaid with gold (cf. Isa 40:19; Jer 10:3-4), with the result that it presented a dazzling self-compliment to the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar’s achievements.

⁵ sn According to a number of patristic authors, the image represented a deification of Nebuchadnezzar himself. This is not clear from the biblical text, however.

⁶ tn Aram “sixty cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 90 feet (27.4 m) high.

⁷ tn Aram “six cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 9 feet (2.74 m) wide.

⁴ tn Aram “house.”

⁵ tn Aram “by the might of my strength.”

⁵ sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately 67 years old at the time of this vision.

⁶ tn Aram “saw.”

⁷ tn Aram “and visions of his head.” The Aramaic is difficult here. Some scholars add a verb thought to be missing (e.g., “the visions of his head [were alarming him]”), but there is no external evidence to support such a decision and the awkwardness of the text at this point may be original.

⁸ tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”