Discovery BoxDaniel 4:32-33
Context4:32 You will be driven from human society, and you will live with the wild animals. You will be fed grass like oxen, and seven periods of time will pass by for you before 1 you understand that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms and gives them to whomever he wishes.”
4:33 Now in that very moment 2 this pronouncement about 3 Nebuchadnezzar came true. 4 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. 5
Daniel 5:21-31
Context5:21 He was driven from human society, his mind 6 was changed to that of an animal, he lived 7 with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until he came to understand that the most high God rules over human kingdoms, and he appoints over them whomever he wishes.
5:22 “But you, his son 8 Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, 9 although you knew all this. 5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods 10 that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control 11 your very breath and all your ways! 5:24 Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.
5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, 12 TEQEL, and PHARSIN. 13 5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: 14 As for mene 15 – God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. 5:27 As for teqel – you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres 16 – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, 17 Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. 5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, 18 was killed. 19 5:31 (6:1) 20 So Darius the Mede took control of the kingdom when he was about sixty-two years old.
Job 30:3-8
Context30:3 gaunt 21 with want and hunger,
they would gnaw 22 the parched land,
in former time desolate and waste. 23
30:4 By the brush 24 they would gather 25 herbs from the salt marshes, 26
and the root of the broom tree was their food.
30:5 They were banished from the community 27 –
people 28 shouted at them
like they would shout at thieves 29 –
30:6 so that they had to live 30
in the dry stream beds, 31
in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
30:7 They brayed 32 like animals among the bushes
and were huddled together 33 under the nettles.
30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, 34
they were driven out of the land with whips. 35
Mark 5:3-4
Context5:3 He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 5:4 For his hands and feet had often been bound with chains and shackles, 36 but 37 he had torn the chains apart and broken the shackles in pieces. No one was strong enough to subdue him.
[4:33] 4 tn Aram “was fulfilled.”
[4:33] 5 tn The words “feathers” and “claws” are not present in the Aramaic text, but have been added in the translation for clarity.
[5:21] 7 tn Aram “his dwelling.”
[5:22] 8 tn Or “descendant”; or “successor.”
[5:22] 9 tn Aram “your heart.”
[5:23] 11 tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”
[5:25] 12 tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).
[5:25] 13 tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “
[5:26] 14 tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.
[5:26] 15 tn The Aramaic term מְנֵא (mÿne’) is a noun referring to a measure of weight. The linkage here to the verb “to number” (Aram. מְנָה, mÿnah) is a case of paronomasia rather than strict etymology. So also with תְּקֵל (tÿqel) and פַרְסִין (farsin). In the latter case there is an obvious wordplay with the name “Persian.”
[5:28] 16 sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.
[5:29] 17 tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”
[5:30] 18 tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”
[5:30] 19 sn The year was 539
[5:31] 20 sn Beginning with 5:31, the verse numbers through 6:28 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Aramaic text (BHS), with 5:31 ET = 6:1 AT, 6:1 ET = 6:2 AT, 6:2 ET = 6:3 AT, 6:3 ET = 6:4 AT, etc., through 6:28 ET = 6:29 AT. Beginning with 7:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Aramaic text are again the same.
[30:3] 21 tn This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.
[30:3] 22 tn The form is the plural participle with the definite article – “who gnaw.” The article, joined to the participle, joins on a new statement concerning a preceding noun (see GKC 404 §126.b).
[30:3] 23 tn The MT has “yesterday desolate and waste.” The word “yesterday” (אֶמֶשׁ, ’emesh) is strange here. Among the proposals for אֶמֶשׁ (’emesh), Duhm suggested יְמַשְּׁשׁוּ (yÿmashÿshu, “they grope”), which would require darkness; Pope renders “by night,” instead of “yesterday,” which evades the difficulty; and Fohrer suggested with more reason אֶרֶץ (’erets), “a desolate and waste land.” R. Gordis (Job, 331) suggests יָמִישׁוּ / יָמֻשׁוּ (yamishu/yamushu), “they wander off.”
[30:4] 24 tn Or “the leaves of bushes” (ESV), a possibility dating back to Saadia and discussed by G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [ICC], 2:209) in their philological notes.
[30:4] 25 tn Here too the form is the participle with the article.
[30:4] 26 tn Heb “gather mallow,” a plant which grows in salt marshes.
[30:5] 27 tn The word גֵּו (gev) is an Aramaic term meaning “midst,” indicating “midst [of society].” But there is also a Phoenician word that means “community” (DISO 48).
[30:5] 28 tn The form simply is the plural verb, but it means those who drove them from society.
[30:5] 29 tn The text merely says “as thieves,” but it obviously compares the poor to the thieves.
[30:6] 30 tn This use of the infinitive construct expresses that they were compelled to do something (see GKC 348-49 §114.h, k).
[30:6] 31 tn The adjectives followed by a partitive genitive take on the emphasis of a superlative: “in the most horrible of valleys” (see GKC 431 §133.h).
[30:7] 32 tn The verb נָהַק (nahaq) means “to bray.” It has cognates in Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, so there is no need for emendation here. It is the sign of an animal’s hunger. In the translation the words “like animals” are supplied to clarify the metaphor for the modern reader.
[30:7] 33 tn The Pual of the verb סָפַח (safakh, “to join”) also brings out the passivity of these people – “they were huddled together” (E. Dhorme, Job, 434).
[30:8] 34 tn The “sons of the senseless” (נָבָל, naval) means they were mentally and morally base and defective; and “sons of no-name” means without honor and respect, worthless (because not named).
[30:8] 35 tn Heb “they were whipped from the land” (cf. ESV) or “they were cast out from the land” (HALOT 697 s.v. נכא). J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 397) follows Gordis suggests that the meaning is “brought lower than the ground.”
[5:4] 36 tn Grk “he had often been bound with chains and shackles.” “Shackles” could also be translated “fetters”; they were chains for the feet.
[5:4] 37 tn Grk “and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
