3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed 10 toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders 11 to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated.
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 12 into 13 the fire?” They replied to the king, “For sure, O king.”
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. 15
4:18 “This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its 16 interpretation, for none of the wise men in 17 my kingdom are able to make known to me the interpretation. But you can do so, for a spirit of the holy gods is in you.”
4:33 Now in that very moment 18 this pronouncement about 19 Nebuchadnezzar came true. 20 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. 21
4:34 But at the end of the appointed time 22 I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up 23 toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me.
I extolled the Most High,
and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever.
For his authority is an everlasting authority,
and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.
1 tn Aram “a revealer of mysteries.” The phrase serves as a quasi-title for God in Daniel.
2 tn Aram “in the latter days.”
3 tn Aram “your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed.”
4 sn The specific duties of the seven types of officials listed here (cf. vv. 3, 27) are unclear. The Aramaic words that are used are transliterations of Akkadian or Persian technical terms whose exact meanings are uncertain. The translations given here follow suggestions set forth in BDB.
5 tn Aram “Nebuchadnezzar the king.” The proper name and title have been replaced by the relative pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.
8 tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.
10 tn Aram “all the peoples.”
11 tc Though not in the Aramaic text of BHS, this word appears in many medieval Hebrew
13 tn Aram “the appearance of his face was altered”; cf. NLT “his face became distorted with rage”; NAB “[his] face became livid with utter rage.”
14 tn Aram “he answered and said.”
16 tn Aram “we threw…bound.”
17 tn Aram “into the midst of.”
19 tn Aram “answered and said.”
20 tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.
22 tc The present translation reads פִּשְׁרֵהּ (pishreh, “its interpretation”) with the Qere and many medieval Hebrew
23 tn Aram “of.”
25 tn Aram “hour.”
26 tn Or “on.”
27 tn Aram “was fulfilled.”
28 tn The words “feathers” and “claws” are not present in the Aramaic text, but have been added in the translation for clarity.
28 tn Aram “days.”
29 tn Aram “lifted up my eyes.”
31 tn Aram “walk.”
34 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”).
35 tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.
36 tn Or “taken.”
37 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
38 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.