Daniel 7:15

An Angel Interprets Daniel’s Vision

7:15 “As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed, ¹  and the visions of my mind ²  were alarming me.

Daniel 4:10

4:10 Here are the visions of my mind ³  while I was on my bed.

While I was watching,

there was a tree in the middle of the land. ⁴ 

It was enormously tall. ⁵ 

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!” ⁶ 

¹ tn The Aramaic text includes the phrase “in its sheath,” apparently viewing the body as a container or receptacle for the spirit somewhat like a sheath or scabbard is for a knife or a sword (cf. NAB “within its sheath of flesh”). For this phrase the LXX and Vulgate have “in these things.”

² tn Aram “head.”

³ tc The LXX lacks the first two words (Aram “the visions of my head”) of the Aramaic text.

⁴ tn Instead of “in the middle of the land,” some English versions render this phrase “a tree at the center of the earth” (NRSV); NAB, CEV “of the world”; NLT “in the middle of the earth.” The Hebrew phrase can have either meaning.

⁵ tn Aram “its height was great.”

⁵ 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.”