Daniel 1:10

1:10 But he ¹  responded to Daniel, “I fear my master the king. He is the one who has decided ²  your food and drink. What would happen if he saw that you looked malnourished in comparison to the other young men your age? ³  If that happened, ⁴  you would endanger my life ⁵  with the king!”

Daniel 5:11

5:11 There is a man in your kingdom who has within him a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, he proved to have ⁶  insight, discernment, and wisdom like that ⁷  of the gods. ⁸  King Nebuchadnezzar your father appointed him chief of the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners. ⁹ 

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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 “[there were] discovered to be in him.”

⁷ tn Aram “wisdom like the wisdom.” This would be redundant in terms of English style.

⁸ tc Theodotion lacks the phrase “and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods.”

⁹ tc The MT includes a redundant reference to “your father the king” at the end of v. 11. None of the attempts to explain this phrase as original are very convincing. The present translation deletes the phrase, following Theodotion and the Syriac.