Daniel 5:14

5:14 I have heard about you, how there is a spirit of the gods in you, and how you have ¹  insight, discernment, and extraordinary wisdom.

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 ²  insight, discernment, and wisdom like that ³  of the gods. ⁴  King Nebuchadnezzar your father appointed him chief of the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners. ⁵ 

Daniel 2:11

2:11 What the king is asking is too difficult, and no one exists who can disclose it to the king, except for the gods – but they don’t live among mortals!” ⁶ 

Daniel 2:47

2:47 The king replied to Daniel, “Certainly your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery!”

Daniel 3:25

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 4:8-9

4:8 Later Daniel entered (whose name is Belteshazzar after the name of my god, ⁸  and in whom there is a spirit of the holy gods). I recounted the dream for him as well, 4:9 saying, “Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, in whom I know there to be a spirit of the holy gods and whom no mystery baffles, consider ⁹  my dream that I saw and set forth its interpretation!

Daniel 4:18

4:18 “This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its ¹⁰  interpretation, for none of the wise men in ¹¹  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.”

¹ tn Aram “there has been found in you.”

² tn Aram “[there were] discovered to be in him.”

³ tn Aram “wisdom like the wisdom.” This would be redundant in terms of English style.

⁴ tc Theodotion lacks the phrase “and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods.”

⁵ 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.

³ tn Aram “whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

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 sn This explanation of the meaning of the name Belteshazzar may be more of a paronomasia than a strict etymology.

⁶ tc The present translation assumes the reading חֲזִי (khazi, “consider”) rather than the MT חֶזְוֵי (khezvey, “visions”). The MT implies that the king required Daniel to disclose both the dream and its interpretation, as in chapter 2. But in the following verses Nebuchadnezzar recounts his dream, while Daniel presents only its interpretation.

⁷ tc The present translation reads פִּשְׁרֵהּ (pishreh, “its interpretation”) with the Qere and many medieval Hebrew MSS; the Kethib is פִּשְׁרָא (pishra’, “the interpretation”); so also v. 16.

⁸ tn Aram “of.”