Daniel 3:25-26

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!” ¹  3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire. He called out, ²  “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out! Come here!”

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. ³ 

Daniel 6:18-19

6:18 Then the king departed to his palace. But he spent the night without eating, and no diversions ⁴  were brought to him. He was unable to sleep. ⁵ 

God Rescues Daniel from the Lions

6:19 In the morning, at the earliest sign of daylight, the king got up and rushed to the lions’ den.

Matthew 10:16

Persecution of Disciples

10:16 “I ⁶  am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, ⁷  so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

[3:25]  ¹ 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.”

[3:26]  ² tn Aram “answered and said.”

[3:26]  ³ tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[6:18]  ⁴ tn The meaning of Aramaic דַּחֲוָה (dakhavah) is a crux interpretum. Suggestions include “music,” “dancing girls,” “concubines,” “table,” “food” – all of which are uncertain. The translation employed here, suggested by earlier scholars, is deliberately vague. A number of recent English versions follow a similar approach with “entertainment” (e.g., NASB, NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). On this word see further, HALOT 1849-50 s.v.; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 37.

[6:18]  ⁵ tn Aram “his sleep fled from him.”

[10:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “Behold I.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[10:16]  ⁷ sn This imagery of wolves is found in intertestamental Judaism; see Pss. Sol. 8:23, 30.