4:19 Then Daniel (whose name is also Belteshazzar) was upset for a brief time; 6 his thoughts were alarming him. The king said, “Belteshazzar, don’t let the dream and its interpretation alarm you.” But Belteshazzar replied, “Sir, 7 if only the dream were for your enemies and its interpretation applied to your adversaries!
9:24 “Seventy weeks 8 have been determined
concerning your people and your holy city
to put an end to 9 rebellion,
to bring sin 10 to completion, 11
to atone for iniquity,
to bring in perpetual 12 righteousness,
to seal up 13 the prophetic vision, 14
and to anoint a most holy place. 15
12:1 “At that time Michael,
the great prince who watches over your people, 16
will arise. 17
There will be a time of distress
unlike any other from the nation’s beginning 18
up to that time.
But at that time your own people,
all those whose names are 19 found written in the book,
will escape.
1 tn Heb “The overseer of the court officials.” The subject has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.
2 tn Heb “assigned.” See v. 5.
3 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.
4 tn The words “if that happened” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “my head.” Presumably this is an implicit reference to capital punishment (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT), although this is not entirely clear.
6 tn Aram “about one hour.” The expression refers idiomatically to a brief period of time of undetermined length.
7 tn Aram “my lord.”
8 tn Heb “sevens.” Elsewhere the term is used of a literal week (a period of seven days), cf. Gen 29:27-28; Exod 34:22; Lev 12:5; Num 28:26; Deut 16:9-10; 2 Chr 8:13; Jer 5:24; Dan 10:2-3. Gabriel unfolds the future as if it were a calendar of successive weeks. Most understand the reference here as periods of seventy “sevens” of years, or a total of 490 years.
9 tc Or “to finish.” The present translation reads the Qere (from the root תָּמַם, tamam) with many witnesses. The Kethib has “to seal up” (from the root הָתַם, hatam), a confusion with a reference later in the verse to sealing up the vision.
10 tc The present translation reads the Qere (singular), rather than the Kethib (plural).
11 tn The Hebrew phrase לְכַלֵּא (lÿkhalle’) is apparently an alternative (metaplastic) spelling of the root כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”), rather than a form of כָּלָא (kala’, “to shut up, restrain”), as has sometimes been supposed.
12 tn Or “everlasting.”
13 sn The act of sealing in the OT is a sign of authentication. Cf. 1 Kgs 21:8; Jer 32:10, 11, 44.
14 tn Heb “vision and prophecy.” The expression is a hendiadys.
15 tn Or “the most holy place” (NASB, NLT); or “a most holy one”; or “the most holy one,” though the expression is used of places or objects elsewhere, not people.
16 tn Heb “stands over the sons of your people.”
17 tn Heb “will stand up.”
18 tn Or “from the beginning of a nation.”
19 tn The words “whose names are” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.