10:1 7 In the third 8 year of King Cyrus of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel (who was also called Belteshazzar). This message was true and concerned a great war. 9 He understood the message and gained insight by the vision.
1 tn Aram “not for any wisdom which is in me more than [in] any living man.”
2 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).
3 tn Aram “heart.”
4 tn Aram “what is certain.”
5 tn Aram “and made known.”
6 tn Aram “matter,” but the matter at hand is of course the vision.
7 sn This chapter begins the final unit in the book of Daniel, consisting of chapters 10-12. The traditional chapter divisions to some extent obscure the relationship of these chapters.
8 tc The LXX has “first.”
sn Cyrus’ third year would have been ca. 536
9 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word צָבָא (tsava’) is uncertain in this context. The word most often refers to an army or warfare. It may also mean “hard service,” and many commentators take that to be the sense here (i.e., “the service was great”). The present translation assumes the reference to be to the spiritual conflicts described, for example, in 10:16–11:1.