Daniel 7:1

Daniel has a Vision of Four Animals Coming up from the Sea

7:1 In the first ¹  year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had ²  a dream filled with visions ³  while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. ⁴ 

Daniel 9:2

9:2 in the first year of his reign ⁵  I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books ⁶  that, according to the word of the LORD ⁷  disclosed to the prophet Jeremiah, the years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem ⁸  were seventy in number.

Daniel 10:12

10:12 Then he said to me, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel, for from the very first day you applied your mind ⁹  to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I have come in response to your words.

¹ sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately 67 years old at the time of this vision.

² tn Aram “saw.”

³ tn Aram “and visions of his head.” The Aramaic is difficult here. Some scholars add a verb thought to be missing (e.g., “the visions of his head [were alarming him]”), but there is no external evidence to support such a decision and the awkwardness of the text at this point may be original.

⁴ tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”

⁵ tc This phrase, repeated from v. 1, is absent in Theodotion.

⁶ tn The Hebrew text has “books”; the word “sacred” has been added in the translation to clarify that it is Scriptures that are referred to.

⁷ sn The tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters which constitute the divine Name, YHWH) appears eight times in this chapter, and nowhere else in the book of Daniel.

⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ tn Heb “gave your heart.”