9:11 “All Israel has broken 23 your law and turned away by not obeying you. 24 Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened 25 in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. 26
10:7 Only I, Daniel, saw the vision; the men who were with me did not see it. 30 On the contrary, they were overcome with fright 31 and ran away to hide.
11:21 “Then there will arise in his place a despicable person 39 to whom the royal honor has not been rightfully conferred. He will come on the scene in a time of prosperity and will seize the kingdom through deceit.
1 tn Heb “from all of them.”
2 tn Heb “stood before the king.”
3 tn Aram “answered and said,” a common idiom to indicate a reply, but redundant in contemporary English.
4 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.
5 tn Aram “made limbs.” Cf. 3:29.
6 tn Aram “Daniel.” The proper name is redundant here in English, and has not been included in the translation.
7 tn Aram “not for any wisdom which is in me more than [in] any living man.”
8 tn Aram “they might cause the king to know.” The impersonal plural is used here to refer to the role of God’s spirit in revealing the dream and its interpretation to the king. As J. A. Montgomery says, “it appropriately here veils the mysterious agency” (Daniel [ICC], 164-65).
9 tn Aram “heart.”
10 tc The present translation reads the conjunction, with most medieval Hebrew
11 sn The reference to people being mixed is usually understood to refer to intermarriage.
12 tn Aram “with the seed of men.”
13 tc The present translation reads הֵיךְ דִּי (hekh diy) rather than the MT הֵא־כְדִי (he’-khÿdi). It is a case of wrong word division.
14 tn Aram “house.”
15 tn Aram “by the might of my strength.”
16 tn Heb “the broken one.” The word “horn” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.
17 tn Heb “extraordinarily he will destroy.”
18 tn Heb “he will succeed and act.”
19 tn See the corresponding Aramaic expression in 7:27. If the “holy ones” are angels, then this probably refers to the angels as protectors of God’s people. One could translate, “people belonging to (i.e., protected by) the holy ones.” If the “holy ones” are God’s people, then this is an appositional construction, “the people who are the holy ones.” One could translate simply “holy people.” For examples of a plural appositional genitive after “people,” see 11:15, 32. Because either interpretation is possible, the translation has deliberately preserved the ambiguity of the Hebrew grammar here.
20 tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate, “as your representatives.”
21 tn Heb “our fathers” (also in vv. 8, 16). The Hebrew term translated “father” can refer to more distant relationships such as grandfathers or ancestors.
22 tn Heb “people.”
23 tn Or “transgressed.” The Hebrew verb has the primary sense of crossing a boundary, in this case, God’s law.
24 tn Heb “by not paying attention to your voice.”
25 tn Heb “the curse and the oath which is written.” The term “curse” refers here to the judgments threatened in the Mosaic law (see Deut 28) for rebellion. The expression “the curse and the oath” is probably a hendiadys (cf. Num 5:21; Neh 10:29) referring to the fact that the covenant with its threatened judgments was ratified by solemn oath and made legally binding upon the covenant community.
26 tn Heb “him.”
27 tn Or “righteous.”
28 tn Heb “in all his deeds which he has done.”
29 tn Heb “we have not listened to his voice.”
30 tn Heb “the vision.”
31 tn Heb “great trembling fell on them.”
32 tn Heb “his heart will be lifted up.” The referent (the king of the south) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 tn Heb “cause to fall.”
34 tn Heb “of myriads.”
35 tn Heb “on his place.”
36 sn The one who will send out an exactor of tribute was Seleucus IV Philopator (ca. 187-176
37 sn Perhaps this exactor of tribute was Heliodorus (cf. 2 Maccabees 3).
38 tn Heb “broken” or “shattered.”
39 sn This despicable person to whom the royal honor has not been rightfully conferred is Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ca. 175-164
40 tn Heb “heart.” So also in v. 28.
41 tn Heb “speak.”