Daniel 2:14

2:14 Then Daniel spoke with prudent counsel 1  to Arioch, who was in charge of the king’s executioners and who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon.

Daniel 2:18

2:18 He asked them to pray for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he 2  and his friends would not be destroyed along with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Daniel 2:49--3:1

2:49 And at Daniel’s request, the king 3  appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the administration of the province of Babylon. Daniel himself served in the king’s court. 4 

Daniel’s Friends Are Tested

3:1 5 King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden 6  statue made. 7  It was ninety feet 8  tall and nine feet 9  wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Daniel 4:6

4:6 So I issued an order 10  for all the wise men of Babylon to be brought 11  before me so that they could make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

Daniel 4:30

4:30 The king uttered these words: “Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal residence 12  by my own mighty strength 13  and for my majestic honor?”

Daniel 7:1

Daniel has a Vision of Four Animals Coming up from the Sea

7:1 In the first 14  year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had 15  a dream filled with visions 16  while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. 17 

1 tn Aram “returned prudence and counsel.” The expression is a hendiadys.

2 tn Aram “Daniel.” The proper name is redundant here in English, and has not been included in the translation.

3 tn Aram “and Daniel sought from the king and he appointed.”

4 tn Aram “was at the gate of the king.”

5 sn The LXX introduces this chapter with the following chronological note: “in the eighteenth year of.” Such a date would place these events at about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8). However, there seems to be no real basis for associating the events of Daniel 3 with this date.

6 sn There is no need to think of Nebuchadnezzar’s image as being solid gold. No doubt the sense is that it was overlaid with gold (cf. Isa 40:19; Jer 10:3-4), with the result that it presented a dazzling self-compliment to the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar’s achievements.

7 sn According to a number of patristic authors, the image represented a deification of Nebuchadnezzar himself. This is not clear from the biblical text, however.

8 tn Aram “sixty cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 90 feet (27.4 m) high.

9 tn Aram “six cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 9 feet (2.74 m) wide.

sn The dimensions of the image (ninety feet high and nine feet wide) imply that it did not possess normal human proportions, unless a base for the image is included in the height dimension. The ancient world knew of other tall statues. For example, the Colossus of Rhodes – the huge statue of Helios which stood (ca. 280-224 B.C.) at the entrance to the harbor at Rhodes and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – was said to be seventy cubits (105 ft or 32 m) in height, which would make it even taller than Nebuchadnezzar’s image.

10 tn Aram “from me there was placed a decree.”

11 tn The Aramaic infinitive here is active.

12 tn Aram “house.”

13 tn Aram “by the might of my strength.”

14 sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately 67 years old at the time of this vision.

15 tn Aram “saw.”

16 tn Aram “and visions of his head.” The Aramaic is difficult here. Some scholars add a verb thought to be missing (e.g., “the visions of his head [were alarming him]”), but there is no external evidence to support such a decision and the awkwardness of the text at this point may be original.

17 tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”