2:23 O God of my fathers, I acknowledge and glorify you,
for you have bestowed wisdom and power on me.
Now you have enabled me to understand what I 1 requested from you.
For you have enabled me to understand the king’s dilemma.” 2
2:25 So Arioch quickly ushered Daniel into the king’s presence, saying to him, “I 3 have found a man from the captives of Judah who can make known the interpretation to the king.”
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. 11
4:12 Its foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful;
on it there was food enough for all.
Under it the wild animals 12 used to seek shade,
and in its branches the birds of the sky used to nest.
All creatures 13 used to feed themselves from it.
4:33 Now in that very moment 15 this pronouncement about 16 Nebuchadnezzar came true. 17 He was driven from human society, he ate grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until his hair became long like an eagle’s feathers, and his nails like a bird’s claws. 18
7:4 “The first one was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off and it was lifted up from the ground. It was made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind 29 was given to it. 30
7:10 A river of fire was streaming forth
and proceeding from his presence.
Many thousands were ministering to him;
Many tens of thousands stood ready to serve him. 31
The court convened 32
and the books were opened.
7:11 “Then I kept on watching because of the arrogant words of the horn that was speaking. I was watching 33 until the beast was killed and its body destroyed and thrown into 34 the flaming fire.
7:19 “Then I wanted to know the meaning 35 of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others. It was very dreadful, with two rows of iron teeth and bronze claws, and it devoured, crushed, and trampled anything that was left with its feet.
1 tn Aram “we.” Various explanations have been offered for the plural, but it is probably best understood as the editorial plural; so also with “me” later in this verse.
2 tn Aram “the word of the king.”
3 sn Arioch’s claim is self-serving and exaggerated. It is Daniel who came to him, and not the other way around. By claiming to have found one capable of solving the king’s dilemma, Arioch probably hoped to ingratiate himself to the king.
5 tn Aram “not for any wisdom which is in me more than [in] any living man.”
6 tn Aram “they might cause the king to know.” The impersonal plural is used here to refer to the role of God’s spirit in revealing the dream and its interpretation to the king. As J. A. Montgomery says, “it appropriately here veils the mysterious agency” (Daniel [ICC], 164-65).
7 tn Aram “heart.”
7 tn Aram “caused to go up.”
8 tn The Aramaic verb is active.
9 tn Aram “the flame of the fire” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NRSV “the raging flames.”
9 tn Aram “answered and said.”
10 tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.
11 tn Aram “the beasts of the field.”
12 tn Aram “all flesh.”
13 tn Aram “until.”
15 tn Aram “hour.”
16 tn Or “on.”
17 tn Aram “was fulfilled.”
18 tn The words “feathers” and “claws” are not present in the Aramaic text, but have been added in the translation for clarity.
17 tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).
18 tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.
19 tn Or “taken.”
20 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
21 sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.
19 tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.
20 tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”
21 tn Aram “from the sons of the captivity [of].”
22 tn Aram “prays his prayer.”
23 tn Aram “The king answered and said to Daniel.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons; it is redundant in English.
25 tn Aram “heart of a man.”
26 sn The identity of the first animal, derived from v. 17 and the parallels in chap. 2, is Babylon. The reference to the plucking of its wings is probably a reference to the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity (cf. chap. 4). The latter part of v. 4 then describes the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar. The other animals have traditionally been understood to represent respectively Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome, although most of modern scholarship identifies them as Media, Persia, and Greece. For a biblical parallel to the mention of lion, bear, and leopard together, see Hos 13:7-8.
27 tn Aram “were standing before him.”
28 tn Aram “judgment sat.”
29 tc The LXX and Theodotion lack the words “I was watching” here. It is possible that these words in the MT are a dittography from the first part of the verse.
30 tn Aram “and given over to” (so NRSV).
31 tn Aram “to make certain.”