Daniel 3:5

3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ¹  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ²  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected.

Daniel 3:10

3:10 You have issued an edict, O king, that everyone must bow down and pay homage to the golden statue when they hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music.

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 ³  in pride.

Daniel 5:10

5:10 Due to the noise ⁴  caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother ⁵  then entered the banquet room. She ⁶  said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken!

Daniel 8:24

8:24 His power will be great, but it will not be by his strength alone. He will cause terrible destruction. ⁷  He will be successful in what he undertakes. ⁸  He will destroy powerful people and the people of the holy ones. ⁹ 

[3:5]  ¹ 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]  ² tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[4:37]  ³ tn Aram “walk.”

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

[5:10]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[8:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “extraordinarily he will destroy.”

[8:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “he will succeed and act.”

[8:24]  ⁹ tn See the corresponding Aramaic expression in 7:27. If the “holy ones” are angels, then this probably refers to the angels as protectors of God’s people. One could translate, “people belonging to (i.e., protected by) the holy ones.” If the “holy ones” are God’s people, then this is an appositional construction, “the people who are the holy ones.” One could translate simply “holy people.” For examples of a plural appositional genitive after “people,” see 11:15, 32. Because either interpretation is possible, the translation has deliberately preserved the ambiguity of the Hebrew grammar here.