Daniel 8:2

8:2 In this ¹  vision I saw myself in Susa ²  the citadel, ³  which is located in the province of Elam. In the vision I saw myself at the Ulai Canal. ⁴ 

Ezekiel 1:3

1:3 the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel ⁵  the son of Buzi, ⁶  at the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. ⁷  The hand ⁸  of the Lord came on him there).

¹ tn Heb “the.”

² sn Susa (Heb. שׁוּשַׁן, shushan), located some 230 miles (380 km) east of Babylon, was a winter residence for Persian kings during the Achaemenid period. The language of v. 2 seems to suggest that Daniel may not have been physically present at Susa, but only saw himself there in the vision. However, the Hebrew is difficult, and some have concluded that the first four words of v. 2 in the MT are a later addition (cf. Theodotion).

³ tn The Hebrew word בִּירָה (birah, “castle, palace”) usually refers to a fortified structure within a city, but here it is in apposition to the city name Susa and therefore has a broader reference to the entire city (against this view, however, see BDB 108 s.v. 2). Cf. NAB “the fortress of Susa”; TEV “the walled city of Susa.”

⁴ tn The term אוּבַל (’uval = “stream, river”) is a relatively rare word in biblical Hebrew, found only here and in vv. 3 and 6. The Ulai was apparently a sizable artificial canal in Susa (cf. NASB, NIV, NCV), and not a river in the ordinary sense of that word.

⁵ sn The prophet’s name, Ezekiel, means in Hebrew “May God strengthen.”

⁶ tn Or “to Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest.”

⁷ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” The name of the tribal group ruling Babylon, “Chaldeans” is used as metonymy for the whole empire of Babylon. The Babylonians worked with the Medes to destroy the Assyrian Empire near the end of the 7th century b.c. Then, over the next century, the Babylonians dominated the West Semitic states (such as Phoenicia, Aram, Moab, Edom, and Judah in the modern countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel) and made incursions into Egypt.

⁸ tn Or “power.”