Daniel 6:17

6:17 Then a stone was brought and placed over the opening ¹  to the den. The king sealed ²  it with his signet ring and with those ³  of his nobles so that nothing could be changed with regard to Daniel.

Daniel 7:1

Daniel has a Vision of Four Animals Coming up from the Sea

7:1 In the first ⁴  year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had ⁵  a dream filled with visions ⁶  while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. ⁷ 

[6:17]  ¹ tn Aram “mouth.”

[6:17]  ² sn The purpose of the den being sealed was to prevent unauthorized tampering with the opening of the den. Any disturbance of the seal would immediately alert the officials to improper activity of this sort.

[6:17]  ³ tn Aram “the signet rings.”

[7:1]  ⁴ sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately 67 years old at the time of this vision.

[7:1]  ⁵ tn Aram “saw.”

[7:1]  ⁶ tn Aram “and visions of his head.” The Aramaic is difficult here. Some scholars add a verb thought to be missing (e.g., “the visions of his head [were alarming him]”), but there is no external evidence to support such a decision and the awkwardness of the text at this point may be original.

[7:1]  ⁷ tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”