Daniel 4:13

4:13 While I was watching in my mind’s visions ¹  on my bed,

a holy sentinel ²  came down from heaven.

Daniel 11:15

11:15 Then the king of the north will advance and will build siege mounds and capture a well-fortified city. ³  The forces of the south will not prevail, not even his finest contingents. ⁴  They will have no strength to prevail.

Daniel 9:24

9:24 “Seventy weeks ⁵  have been determined

concerning your people and your holy city

to put an end to ⁶  rebellion,

to bring sin ⁷  to completion, ⁸ 

to atone for iniquity,

to bring in perpetual ⁹  righteousness,

to seal up ¹⁰  the prophetic vision, ¹¹ 

and to anoint a most holy place. ¹² 

Daniel 4:23

4:23 As for the king seeing a holy sentinel coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its taproot in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, surrounded by the grass of the field. Let it become damp with the dew of the sky, and let it live with the wild animals, until seven periods of time go by for him’ –

¹ tn Aram “the visions of my head.”

² tn Aram “a watcher and a holy one.” The expression is a hendiadys; so also in v. 23. This “watcher” is apparently an angel. The Greek OT (LXX) in fact has ἄγγελος (angelo", “angel”) here. Theodotion simply transliterates the Aramaic word (’ir). The term is sometimes rendered “sentinel” (NAB) or “messenger” (NIV, NLT).

³ sn This well-fortified city is apparently Sidon. Its capture from the Ptolemies by Antiochus the Great was a strategic victory for the Seleucid kingdom.

⁴ tn Or “choice troops” (BDB 104 s.v. מִבְחָר), or “elite troops” (HALOT 542 s.v. מִבְחָר).

⁵ tn Heb “sevens.” Elsewhere the term is used of a literal week (a period of seven days), cf. Gen 29:27-28; Exod 34:22; Lev 12:5; Num 28:26; Deut 16:9-10; 2 Chr 8:13; Jer 5:24; Dan 10:2-3. Gabriel unfolds the future as if it were a calendar of successive weeks. Most understand the reference here as periods of seventy “sevens” of years, or a total of 490 years.

⁶ tc Or “to finish.” The present translation reads the Qere (from the root תָּמַם, tamam) with many witnesses. The Kethib has “to seal up” (from the root הָתַם, hatam), a confusion with a reference later in the verse to sealing up the vision.

⁷ tc The present translation reads the Qere (singular), rather than the Kethib (plural).

⁸ tn The Hebrew phrase לְכַלֵּא (lÿkhalle’) is apparently an alternative (metaplastic) spelling of the root כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”), rather than a form of כָּלָא (kala’, “to shut up, restrain”), as has sometimes been supposed.

⁹ tn Or “everlasting.”

¹⁰ sn The act of sealing in the OT is a sign of authentication. Cf. 1 Kgs 21:8; Jer 32:10, 11, 44.

¹¹ tn Heb “vision and prophecy.” The expression is a hendiadys.

¹² tn Or “the most holy place” (NASB, NLT); or “a most holy one”; or “the most holy one,” though the expression is used of places or objects elsewhere, not people.