Daniel 3:26

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

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. ² 

Daniel 3:28

3:28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, ³  “Praised be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent forth his angel ⁴  and has rescued his servants who trusted in him, ignoring ⁵  the edict of the king and giving up their bodies rather than ⁶  serve or pay homage to any god other than their God!

Daniel 6:16

6:16 So the king gave the order, ⁷  and Daniel was brought and thrown into a den ⁸  of lions. The king consoled ⁹  Daniel by saying, “Your God whom you continually serve will rescue you!”

Daniel 6:20

6:20 As he approached the den, he called out to Daniel in a worried voice, ¹⁰  “Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God whom you continually serve able to rescue you from the lions?”

Jonah 1:9

1:9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew! And I worship ¹¹  the Lord, ¹²  the God of heaven, ¹³  who made the sea and the dry land.”

Jonah 1:1

Jonah Tries to Run from the Lord

1:1 The Lord said ¹⁴  to Jonah son of Amittai, ¹⁵ 

Jonah 2:1

2:1 Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish

[3:26]  ¹ tn Aram “answered and said.”

[3:26]  ² tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:28]  ³ tn Aram “answered and said.”

[3:28]  ⁴ sn The king identifies the “son of the gods” (v. 25) as an angel. Comparable Hebrew expressions are used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for the members of God’s angelic assembly (see Gen 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Pss 29:1; 89:6). An angel later comes to rescue Daniel from the lions (Dan 6:22).

[3:28]  ⁵ tn Aram “they changed” or “violated.”

[3:28]  ⁶ tn Aram “so that they might not.”

[6:16]  ⁷ tn Aram “said.” So also in vv. 24, 25.

[6:16]  ⁸ sn The den was perhaps a pit below ground level which could be safely observed from above.

[6:16]  ⁹ tn Aram “answered and said [to Daniel].”

[6:20]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “The king answered and said to Daniel.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons; it is redundant in English.

[1:9]  ¹¹ tn Or “fear.” The verb יָרֵא (yare’) has a broad range of meanings, including “to fear, to worship, to revere, to respect” (BDB 431 s.v.). When God is the object, it normally means “to fear” (leading to obedience; BDB 431 s.v. 1) or “to worship” (= to stand in awe of; BDB 431 s.v. 2). Because the fear of God leads to wisdom and obedience, that is probably not the sense here. Instead Jonah professes to be a loyal Yahwist – in contrast to the pagan Phoenician sailors who worshiped false gods, he worshiped the one true God. Unfortunately his worship of the Lord lacked the necessary moral prerequisite.

[1:9]  ¹² tn Heb “The Lord, the God of heaven, I fear.” The Hebrew word order is unusual. Normally the verb appears first, but here the direct object “the Lord, the God of heaven” precedes the verb. Jonah emphasizes the object of his worship. In contrast to the Phoenician sailors who worship pagan polytheistic gods, Jonah took pride in his theological orthodoxy. Ironically, his “fear” of the Lord in this case was limited to this profession of theological orthodoxy because his actions betrayed his refusal to truly “fear” God by obeying him.

[1:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “the God of the heavens.” The noun שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “heavens”) always appears in the dual form. Although the dual form sometimes refers to things that exist in pairs, the dual is often used to refer to geographical locations, e.g., יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (yÿrushalayim, “Jerusalem”), אֶפְרַיִם (’efrayim, “Ephraim”), and מִצְרַיִם (mitsrayim, “Egypt,” but see IBHS 118 §7.3d). The dual form of שָׁמַיִם does not refer to two different kinds of heavens or to two levels of heaven; it simply refers to “heaven” as a location – the dwelling place of God. Jonah’s point is that he worships the High God of heaven – the one enthroned over all creation.

[1:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “The word of the Lord.” The genitive noun in the construction דְּבַר־יְהוָה (dÿvar-yÿhvah, “word of the Lord”) could function as a possessive genitive (“the Lord’s word”; see IBHS 145 §9.5.1g), but more likely it functions as a subjective genitive (“the Lord said”; see IBHS 143 §9.5.1a). The Aramaic translation of Jonah 1:1 (Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible are known as Targums) interprets the Hebrew as “There was a word of prophecy from the Lord” (cf. Tg. Hos 1:1).

[1:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The word of the Lord was to Jonah…saying….” The infinitive לֵאמֹר (le’mor, “saying”) introduces direct discourse and is untranslated in English.