7:25 He will speak words against the Most High.
He will harass 9 the holy ones of the Most High continually.
His intention 10 will be to change times established by law. 11
They will be delivered into his hand
For a time, times, 12 and half a time.
1 tn The Aramaic indefinite active plural is used here like the English passive. So also in v. 28, 29,32.
2 tn Aram “from mankind.” So also in v. 32.
3 tn Aram “your dwelling will be.” So also in v. 32.
4 tn Or perhaps “be made to eat.”
5 sn Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity has features that are associated with the mental disorder known as boanthropy, in which the person so afflicted imagines himself to be an ox or a similar animal and behaves accordingly.
6 tn Aram “until.”
7 tn Aram “in the mouth of the king.”
8 tn Aram “to you they say.”
9 tn Aram “wear out” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB, NLT “wear down.” The word is a hapax legomenon in biblical Aramaic, but in biblical Hebrew it especially refers to wearing out such things as garments. Here it is translated “harass…continually.”
10 tn Aram “he will think.”
11 tn Aram “times and law.” The present translation is based on the understanding that the expression is a hendiadys.
12 sn Although the word times is vocalized in the MT as a plural, it probably should be regarded as a dual. The Masoretes may have been influenced here by the fact that in late Aramaic (and Syriac) the dual forms fall out of use. The meaning would thus be three and a half “times.”
13 tn Or “to the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
14 tc The present translation reads יַד־נֹפֵץ (yad-nofets, “hand of one who shatters”) rather than the MT נַפֵּץ־יַד (nappets-yad, “to shatter the hand”).
15 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present here.
16 tn Or “desert.”
17 tn The word “God” is supplied based on the previous statements made concerning “the place prepared for the woman” in 12:6.
18 tc The reading “and half a time” (καὶ ἥμισυ καιροῦ, kai {hmisu kairou) is lacking in the important uncial C. Its inclusion, however, is supported by {Ì47 א A and the rest of the ms tradition}. There is apparently no reason for the scribe of C to intentionally omit the phrase, and the fact that the word “time” (καιρὸν καὶ καιρούς, kairon kai kairou") appears twice before may indicate a scribal oversight.