Daniel 1:8

1:8 But Daniel made up his mind ¹  that he would not defile ²  himself with the royal delicacies or the royal wine. ³  He therefore asked the overseer of the court officials for permission not to defile himself.

Daniel 3:5

3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ⁴  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ⁵  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected.

Daniel 6:3

6:3 Now this Daniel was distinguishing himself above the other supervisors and the satraps, for he had an extraordinary spirit. In fact, the king intended to appoint him over the entire kingdom.

Daniel 6:5

6:5 So these men concluded, ⁶  “We won’t find any pretext against this man Daniel unless it is ⁷  in connection with the law of his God.”

Daniel 10:7

10:7 Only I, Daniel, saw the vision; the men who were with me did not see it. ⁸  On the contrary, they were overcome with fright ⁹  and ran away to hide.

[1:8]  ¹ tn Heb “placed on his heart.”

[1:8]  ² tn Or “would not make himself ceremonially unclean”; TEV “become ritually unclean.”

[1:8]  sn Various reasons have been suggested as to why such food would defile Daniel. Perhaps it had to do with violations of Mosaic law with regard to unclean foods, or perhaps it had to do with such food having been offered to idols. Daniel’s practice in this regard is strikingly different from that of Esther, who was able successfully to conceal her Jewish identity.

[1:8]  ³ tn Heb “with the delicacies of the king and with the wine of his drinking.”

[3:5]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[6:5]  ⁶ tn Aram “were saying.”

[6:5]  ⁷ tn Aram “unless we find [it] against him.”

[10:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “the vision.”

[10:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “great trembling fell on them.”