Daniel 2:3

2:3 The king told them, “I have had a dream, ¹  and I ²  am anxious to understand the dream.”

Daniel 10:2

10:2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three whole weeks. ³ 

Daniel 1:7

1:7 But the overseer of the court officials renamed them. He gave ⁴  Daniel the name Belteshazzar, Hananiah he named Shadrach, Mishael he named Meshach, and Azariah he named Abednego. ⁵ 

Daniel 1:20

1:20 In every matter of wisdom and ⁶  insight the king asked them about, he found them to be ten times ⁷  better than any of the magicians and astrologers that were in his entire empire.

Daniel 8:9

8:9 From one of them came a small horn. ⁸  But it grew to be very big, toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. ⁹ 

Daniel 11:14

11:14 “In those times many will oppose ¹⁰  the king of the south. ¹¹  Those who are violent ¹²  among your own people will rise up in confirmation of ¹³  the vision, but they will falter.

Daniel 11:24

11:24 In a time of prosperity for the most productive areas of the province he will come and accomplish what neither his fathers nor their fathers accomplished. He will distribute loot, spoils, and property to his followers, and he will devise plans against fortified cities, but not for long. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “I have dreamed a dream” (so KJV, ASV).

² tn Heb “my spirit.”

³ tn Heb “three weeks of days.” The inclusion of “days” here and in v. 3 is perhaps intended to call attention to the fact that these weeks are very different in nature from those of chap. 9, which are “weeks of years.”

⁵ tc The LXX and Vulgate lack the verb here.

⁶ sn The meanings of the Babylonian names are more conjectural than is the case with the Hebrew names. The probable etymologies are as follows: Belteshazzar means “protect his life,” although the MT vocalization may suggest “Belti, protect the king” (cf. Dan 4:8); Shadrach perhaps means “command of Aku”; Meshach is of uncertain meaning; Abednego means “servant of Nego.” Assigning Babylonian names to the Hebrew youths may have been an attempt to erase from their memory their Israelite heritage.

⁷ tc The MT lacks the conjunction, reading the first word in the phrase as a construct (“wisdom of insight”). While this reading is not impossible, it seems better to follow Theodotion, the Syriac, the Vulgate, and the Sahidic Coptic, all of which have the conjunction.

⁸ tn Heb “hands.”

⁹ sn This small horn is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who controlled the Seleucid kingdom from ca. 175-164 B.C. Antiochus was extremely hostile toward the Jews and persecuted them mercilessly.

¹⁰ sn The expression the beautiful land (Heb. הַצֶּבִי [hatsÿvi] = “the beauty”) is a cryptic reference to the land of Israel. Cf. 11:16, 41, where it is preceded by the word אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”).

¹¹ tn Heb “stand against.”

¹² sn This was Ptolemy V Epiphanes (ca. 203-181 B.C.).

¹³ tn Heb “sons of violence.” “Son(s) is sometimes used idiomatically in Hebrew to indicate that someone is characterized by a certain quality. So the expression “sons of violence” means that these individuals will be characterized by violent deeds.

¹⁴ tn Heb “to cause to stand.”

¹³ tn Heb “and unto a time.”