Daniel 2:28

2:28 However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, ¹  and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the times to come. ²  The dream and the visions you had while lying on your bed ³  are as follows.

Daniel 3:5

3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ⁴  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ⁵  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected.

Daniel 3:7

3:7 Therefore when they all ⁶  heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, ⁷  and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and language groups began bowing down and paying homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected.

Daniel 3:14

3:14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don’t serve my gods and that you don’t pay homage to the golden statue that I erected?

Daniel 3:19

3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed ⁸  toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders ⁹  to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated.

Daniel 3:24

God Delivers His Servants

3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was startled and quickly got up. He said to his ministers, “Wasn’t it three men that we tied up and threw ¹⁰  into ¹¹  the fire?” They replied to the king, “For sure, O king.”

Daniel 3:26

3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire. He called out, ¹²  “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out! Come here!”

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. ¹³ 

Daniel 4:18

4:18 “This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its ¹⁴  interpretation, for none of the wise men in ¹⁵  my kingdom are able to make known to me the interpretation. But you can do so, for a spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

Daniel 4:33-34

4:33 Now in that very moment ¹⁶  this pronouncement about ¹⁷  Nebuchadnezzar came true. ¹⁸  He was driven from human society, he ate grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until his hair became long like an eagle’s feathers, and his nails like a bird’s claws. ¹⁹ 

4:34 But at the end of the appointed time ²⁰  I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up ²¹  toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me.

I extolled the Most High,

and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever.

For his authority is an everlasting authority,

and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.

Daniel 4:37

4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all his deeds are right and his ways are just. He is able to bring down those who live ²²  in pride.

Daniel 5:2

5:2 While under the influence ²³  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ²⁴  had confiscated ²⁵  from the temple in Jerusalem ²⁶  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ²⁷ 

Daniel 5:11

5:11 There is a man in your kingdom who has within him a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, he proved to have ²⁸  insight, discernment, and wisdom like that ²⁹  of the gods. ³⁰  King Nebuchadnezzar your father appointed him chief of the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners. ³¹ 

[2:28]  ¹ tn Aram “a revealer of mysteries.” The phrase serves as a quasi-title for God in Daniel.

[2:28]  ² tn Aram “in the latter days.”

[2:28]  ³ tn Aram “your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed.”

[3:5]  ⁴ sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.

[3:5]  ⁵ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[3:7]  ⁷ tn Aram “all the peoples.”

[3:7]  ⁸ tc Though not in the Aramaic text of BHS, this word appears in many medieval Hebrew MSS, some LXX MSS, and Vulgate. Cf. vv. 5, 10, 15.

[3:19]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “the appearance of his face was altered”; cf. NLT “his face became distorted with rage”; NAB “[his] face became livid with utter rage.”

[3:19]  ¹¹ tn Aram “he answered and said.”

[3:24]  ¹³ tn Aram “we threw…bound.”

[3:24]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “into the midst of.”

[3:26]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “answered and said.”

[3:26]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[4:18]  ¹⁹ tc The present translation reads פִּשְׁרֵהּ (pishreh, “its interpretation”) with the Qere and many medieval Hebrew MSS; the Kethib is פִּשְׁרָא (pishra’, “the interpretation”); so also v. 16.

[4:18]  ²⁰ tn Aram “of.”

[4:33]  ²² tn Aram “hour.”

[4:33]  ²³ tn Or “on.”

[4:33]  ²⁴ tn Aram “was fulfilled.”

[4:33]  ²⁵ tn The words “feathers” and “claws” are not present in the Aramaic text, but have been added in the translation for clarity.

[4:34]  ²⁵ tn Aram “days.”

[4:34]  ²⁶ tn Aram “lifted up my eyes.”

[4:37]  ²⁸ tn Aram “walk.”

[5:2]  ³¹ tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

[5:2]  ³² tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

[5:2]  ³³ tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ³⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ³⁵ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

[5:11]  ³⁴ tn Aram “[there were] discovered to be in him.”

[5:11]  ³⁵ tn Aram “wisdom like the wisdom.” This would be redundant in terms of English style.

[5:11]  ³⁶ tc Theodotion lacks the phrase “and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods.”

[5:11]  ³⁷ tc The MT includes a redundant reference to “your father the king” at the end of v. 11. None of the attempts to explain this phrase as original are very convincing. The present translation deletes the phrase, following Theodotion and the Syriac.