Daniel 3:15

3:15 Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must bow down and pay homage to the statue that I had made. If you don’t pay homage to it, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. Now, who is that god who can rescue you from my power?” ¹ 

Daniel 2:6

2:6 But if you can disclose the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts, a reward, and considerable honor. So disclose to me the dream and its interpretation!”

Daniel 2:8

2:8 The king replied, “I know for sure that you are attempting to gain time, because you see that my decision is firm.

Daniel 2:5

2:5 The king replied ²  to the wise men, “My decision is firm. ³  If you do not inform me of both the dream and its interpretation, you will be dismembered ⁴  and your homes reduced to rubble!

Daniel 2:9

2:9 If you don’t inform me of the dream, there is only one thing that is going to happen to you. ⁵  For you have agreed among yourselves to report to me something false and deceitful ⁶  until such time as things might change. So tell me the dream, and I will have confidence ⁷  that you can disclose its interpretation.”

Daniel 3:14

3:14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don’t serve my gods and that you don’t pay homage to the golden statue that I erected?

Daniel 1:10

1:10 But he ⁸  responded to Daniel, “I fear my master the king. He is the one who has decided ⁹  your food and drink. What would happen if he saw that you looked malnourished in comparison to the other young men your age? ¹⁰  If that happened, ¹¹  you would endanger my life ¹²  with the king!”

Daniel 10:21

10:21 However, I will first tell you what is written in a dependable book. ¹³  (There is no one who strengthens me against these princes, ¹⁴  except Michael your ¹⁵  prince.

Daniel 2:47

2:47 The king replied to Daniel, “Certainly your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery!”

Daniel 3:5

3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ¹⁶  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ¹⁷  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected.

Daniel 3:26

3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire. He called out, ¹⁸  “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out! Come here!”

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. ¹⁹ 

Daniel 3:4

3:4 Then the herald ²⁰  made a loud ²¹  proclamation: “To you, O peoples, nations, and language groups, the following command is given: ²² 

Daniel 4:1

4:1 (3:31) ²³  “King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations, and language groups that live in all the land: Peace and prosperity! ²⁴ 

Daniel 12:1

12:1 “At that time Michael,

the great prince who watches over your people, ²⁵ 

will arise. ²⁶ 

There will be a time of distress

unlike any other from the nation’s beginning ²⁷ 

up to that time.

But at that time your own people,

all those whose names are ²⁸  found written in the book,

will escape.

Daniel 12:13

12:13 But you should go your way ²⁹  until the end. ³⁰  You will rest and then at the end of the days you will arise to receive ³¹  what you have been allotted.” ³² 

[3:15]  ¹ tn Aram “hand.” So also in v. 17.

[2:5]  ² tn Aram “answered and said,” a common idiom to indicate a reply, but redundant in contemporary English.

[2:5]  ³ tn It seems clear from what follows that Nebuchadnezzar clearly recalls the content of the dream, although obviously he does not know what to make of it. By not divulging the dream itself to the would-be interpreters, he intends to find out whether they are simply leading him on. If they can tell him the dream’s content, which he is able to verify, he then can have confidence in their interpretation, which is what eludes him. The translation “the matter is gone from me” (cf. KJV, ASV), suggesting that the king had simply forgotten the dream, is incorrect. The Aramaic word used here (אַזְדָּא, ’azda’) is probably of Persian origin; it occurs in the OT only here and in v. 8. There are two main possibilities for the meaning of the word: “the matter is promulgated by me” (see KBL 1048 s.v.) and therefore “publicly known” (cf. NRSV; F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 62-63, §189), or “the matter is irrevocable” (cf. NAB, NIV, TEV, CEV, NLT; HALOT 1808 s.v. אזד; cf. also BDB 1079 s.v.). The present translation reflects this latter option. See further E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 3.

[2:5]  ⁴ tn Aram “made limbs.” Cf. 3:29.

[2:9]  ⁵ tn Aram “one is your law,” i.e., only one thing is applicable to you.

[2:9]  ⁶ tn Aram “a lying and corrupt word.”

[2:9]  ⁷ tn Aram “I will know.”

[1:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “The overseer of the court officials.” The subject has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “assigned.” See v. 5.

[1:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Why should he see your faces thin from the young men who are according to your age?” The term translated “thin” occurs only here and in Gen 40:6, where it appears to refer to a dejected facial expression. The word is related to an Arabic root meaning “be weak.” See HALOT 277 s.v. II זעף.

[1:10]  ¹¹ tn The words “if that happened” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.

[1:10]  ¹² tn Heb “my head.” Presumably this is an implicit reference to capital punishment (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT), although this is not entirely clear.

[10:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “a book of truth.” Several English versions treat this as a title of some sort (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT), although the NAB’s rendering “the truthful book” regards “truth” as an attributive adjective, as does the present translation.

[10:21]  ¹⁴ tn The word “princes” is supplied for clarity.

[10:21]  ¹⁵ tn The pronoun is plural in Hebrew, suggesting that Michael is the angelic prince of Daniel and his people.

[3:5]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[3:26]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “answered and said.”

[3:26]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:4]  ²⁰ tn According to BDB 1097 s.v. כָּרוֹז the Aramaic word used here is a Greek loanword, but other scholars have argued instead for a Persian derivation (HALOT 1902 s.v. *כָּרוֹז).

[3:4]  ²¹ tn Aram “in strength.”

[3:4]  ²² tn Aram “they are saying.”

[4:1]  ²³ 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.

[4:1]  ²⁴ tn Aram “May your peace increase!”

[12:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “stands over the sons of your people.”

[12:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “will stand up.”

[12:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “from the beginning of a nation.”

[12:1]  ²⁸ tn The words “whose names are” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[12:13]  ²⁹ tn The words “your way” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[12:13]  ³⁰ tc The LXX lacks “until the end.”

[12:13]  ³¹ tn The word “receive” is added in the translation for clarification.

[12:13]  ³² sn The deuterocanonical writings known as the Story of Susanna and Bel and the Dragon appear respectively as chapters 13 and 14 of the book of Daniel in the Greek version of this book. Although these writings are not part of the Hebrew/Aramaic text of Daniel, they were popular among certain early communities who valued traditions about the life of Daniel.