Daniel 2:25

2:25 So Arioch quickly ushered Daniel into the king’s presence, saying to him, “I ¹  have found a man from the captives of Judah who can make known the interpretation to the king.”

Daniel 3:22

3:22 But since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace was so excessively hot, the men who escorted ²  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were killed ³  by the leaping flames. ⁴ 

Daniel 3:24-25

God Delivers His Servants

3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was startled and quickly got up. He said to his ministers, “Wasn’t it three men that we tied up and threw ⁵  into ⁶  the fire?” They replied to the king, “For sure, O king.” 3:25 He answered, “But I see four men, untied and walking around in the midst of the fire! No harm has come to them! And the appearance of the fourth is like that of a god!” ⁷ 

Daniel 3:27

3:27 Once the satraps, prefects, governors, and ministers of the king had gathered around, they saw that those men were physically ⁸  unharmed by the fire. ⁹  The hair of their heads was not singed, nor were their trousers damaged. Not even the smell of fire was to be found on them!

Daniel 5:11

5:11 There is a man in your kingdom who has within him a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, he proved to have ¹⁰  insight, discernment, and wisdom like that ¹¹  of the gods. ¹²  King Nebuchadnezzar your father appointed him chief of the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners. ¹³ 

Daniel 6:15

6:15 Then those men came by collusion to the king and ¹⁴  said to him, ¹⁵  “Recall, ¹⁶  O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no edict or decree that the king issues can be changed.”

Daniel 6:24

6:24 The king gave another order, ¹⁷  and those men who had maliciously accused ¹⁸  Daniel were brought and thrown ¹⁹  into the lions’ den – they, their children, and their wives. ²⁰  They did not even reach the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

¹ 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.

² tn Aram “caused to go up.”

³ tn The Aramaic verb is active.

⁴ tn Aram “the flame of the fire” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NRSV “the raging flames.”

³ tn Aram “we threw…bound.”

⁴ tn Aram “into the midst of.”

⁴ 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.”

⁵ tn Aram “in their bodies.”

⁶ tn Aram “the fire did not have power.”

⁶ tn Aram “[there were] discovered to be in him.”

⁷ tn Aram “wisdom like the wisdom.” This would be redundant in terms of English style.

⁸ tc Theodotion lacks the phrase “and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods.”

⁹ tc The MT includes a redundant reference to “your father the king” at the end of v. 11. None of the attempts to explain this phrase as original are very convincing. The present translation deletes the phrase, following Theodotion and the Syriac.

⁷ tc Theodotion lacks the words “came by collusion to the king and.”

⁸ tn Aram “the king.”

⁹ tn Aram “know”; NAB “Keep in mind”; NASB “Recognize”; NIV, NCV “Remember.”

⁸ tn Aram “said.”

⁹ tn Aram “had eaten the pieces of.” The Aramaic expression is ironic, in that the accusers who had figuratively “eaten the pieces of Daniel” are themselves literally devoured by the lions.

¹⁰ tn The Aramaic active impersonal verb is often used as a substitute for the passive.

¹¹ tc The LXX specifies only the two overseers, together with their families, as those who were cast into the lions’ den.