Daniel 2:38

2:38 Wherever human beings, ¹  wild animals, ²  and birds of the sky live – he has given them into your power. ³  He has given you authority over them all. You are the head of gold.

Daniel 3:1-2

Daniel’s Friends Are Tested

3:1 ⁴ King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden ⁵  statue made. ⁶  It was ninety feet ⁷  tall and nine feet ⁸  wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 3:2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent out a summons to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, ⁹  and all the other authorities of the province to attend the dedication of the statue that he ¹⁰  had erected.

Daniel 5:10

5:10 Due to the noise ¹¹  caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother ¹²  then entered the banquet room. She ¹³  said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken!

Daniel 9:12

9:12 He has carried out his threats ¹⁴  against us and our rulers ¹⁵  who were over ¹⁶  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!

[2:38]  ¹ tn Aram “the sons of man.”

[2:38]  ² tn Aram “the beasts of the field.”

[2:38]  ³ tn Aram “hand.”

[3:1]  ⁴ sn The LXX introduces this chapter with the following chronological note: “in the eighteenth year of.” Such a date would place these events at about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8). However, there seems to be no real basis for associating the events of Daniel 3 with this date.

[3:1]  ⁵ sn There is no need to think of Nebuchadnezzar’s image as being solid gold. No doubt the sense is that it was overlaid with gold (cf. Isa 40:19; Jer 10:3-4), with the result that it presented a dazzling self-compliment to the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar’s achievements.

[3:1]  ⁶ sn According to a number of patristic authors, the image represented a deification of Nebuchadnezzar himself. This is not clear from the biblical text, however.

[3:1]  ⁷ tn Aram “sixty cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 90 feet (27.4 m) high.

[3:1]  ⁸ tn Aram “six cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 9 feet (2.74 m) wide.

[3:2]  ⁷ sn The specific duties of the seven types of officials listed here (cf. vv. 3, 27) are unclear. The Aramaic words that are used are transliterations of Akkadian or Persian technical terms whose exact meanings are uncertain. The translations given here follow suggestions set forth in BDB.

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Aram “Nebuchadnezzar the king.” The proper name and title have been replaced by the relative pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:10]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “words of the king.”

[5:10]  ¹¹ tn Aram “the queen” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). In the following discourse this woman is able to recall things about Daniel that go back to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, things that Belshazzar does not seem to recollect. It is likely that she was the wife not of Belshazzar but of Nabonidus or perhaps even Nebuchadnezzar. In that case, “queen” here means “queen mother” (cf. NCV “the king’s mother”).

[5:10]  ¹² tn Aram “The queen.” The translation has used the pronoun “she” instead because repetition of the noun here would be redundant in terms of English style.

[9:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

[9:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “our judges.”

[9:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “who judged.”