Daniel 2:13

2:13 So a decree went out, and the wise men were about ¹  to be executed. They also sought ²  Daniel and his friends so that they could be executed.

Daniel 4:1

4:1 (3:31) ³  “King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations, and language groups that live in all the land: Peace and prosperity! ⁴ 

Daniel 4:6

4:6 So I issued an order ⁵  for all the wise men of Babylon to be brought ⁶  before me so that they could make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

Daniel 4:13

4:13 While I was watching in my mind’s visions ⁷  on my bed,

a holy sentinel ⁸  came down from heaven.

Daniel 4:20

4:20 The tree that you saw that grew large and strong, whose top reached to the sky, and which could be seen ⁹  in all the land,

Daniel 8:10

8:10 It grew so big it reached the army ¹⁰  of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars ¹¹  to the ground, where it trampled them.

¹ tn The Aramaic participle is used here to express the imminent future.

² tn The impersonal active plural (“they sought”) of the Aramaic verb could also be translated as an English passive: “Daniel and his friends were sought” (cf. NAB).

³ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:37 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Aramaic text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:31 AT, 4:2 ET = 3:32 AT, 4:3 ET = 3:33 AT, 4:4 ET = 4:1 AT, etc., through 4:37 ET = 4:34 AT. Thus Dan 3:31-33 of the Aramaic text appears as Dan 4:1-3 in the English Bible, and the corresponding verses of ch. 4 differ accordingly. In spite of the division of the Aramaic text, a good case can be made that 3:31-33 AT (= 4:1-3 ET) is actually the introduction to ch. 4.

⁴ tn Aram “May your peace increase!”

⁵ tn Aram “from me there was placed a decree.”

⁶ tn The Aramaic infinitive here is active.

⁷ tn Aram “the visions of my head.”

⁸ tn Aram “a watcher and a holy one.” The expression is a hendiadys; so also in v. 23. This “watcher” is apparently an angel. The Greek OT (LXX) in fact has ἄγγελος (angelo", “angel”) here. Theodotion simply transliterates the Aramaic word (’ir). The term is sometimes rendered “sentinel” (NAB) or “messenger” (NIV, NLT).

⁹ tn Aram “its sight.”

¹⁰ tn Traditionally, “host.” The term refers to God’s heavenly angelic assembly, which he sometimes leads into battle as an army.

¹¹ sn In prescientific Israelite thinking the stars were associated with the angelic members of God’s heavenly assembly. See Judg 5:20; Job 38:7; Isa 40:26. In west Semitic mythology the stars were members of the high god’s divine assembly (see Isa 14:13).