4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. 15
He does as he wishes with the army of heaven
and with those who inhabit the earth.
No one slaps 16 his hand
and says to him, ‘What have you done?’
7:14 To him was given ruling authority, honor, and sovereignty.
All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving 18 him.
His authority is eternal and will not pass away. 19
His kingdom will not be destroyed. 20
9:11 “All Israel has broken 27 your law and turned away by not obeying you. 28 Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened 29 in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. 30 9:12 He has carried out his threats 31 against us and our rulers 32 who were over 33 us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!
1 tn Aram “the sons of man.”
2 tn Aram “the beasts of the field.”
3 tn Aram “hand.”
4 tc Theodotion and the Vulgate lack the phrase “and as iron breaks in pieces.”
5 tn The Aramaic text does not have this word, but it has been added in the translation for clarity.
6 tn The words “the others” are supplied from the context.
7 sn The specific duties of the seven types of officials listed here (cf. vv. 3, 27) are unclear. The Aramaic words that are used are transliterations of Akkadian or Persian technical terms whose exact meanings are uncertain. The translations given here follow suggestions set forth in BDB.
8 tn Aram “Nebuchadnezzar the king.” The proper name and title have been replaced by the relative pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 tc The LXX and Theodotion lack the words “that Nebuchadnezzar had erected.”
10 sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.
11 tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.
12 tn Aram “from me there was placed a decree.”
13 tn The Aramaic infinitive here is active.
14 tn Aram “the beasts of the field” (also in vv. 23, 25, 32).
15 tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew
16 tn Aram “strikes against.”
17 tn Aram “walk.”
18 tn Some take “serving” here in the sense of “worshiping.”
19 tn Aram “is an eternal authority which will not pass away.”
20 tn Aram “is one which will not be destroyed.”
21 tn Aram “what is certain.”
22 tn Aram “and made known.”
23 tn Aram “matter,” but the matter at hand is of course the vision.
24 tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate, “as your representatives.”
25 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.
26 tn Heb “people.”
27 tn Or “transgressed.” The Hebrew verb has the primary sense of crossing a boundary, in this case, God’s law.
28 tn Heb “by not paying attention to your voice.”
29 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.
30 tn Heb “him.”
31 tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”
32 tn Heb “our judges.”
33 tn Heb “who judged.”
34 tn Or “righteous.”
35 tn Heb “in all his deeds which he has done.”
36 tn Heb “we have not listened to his voice.”
37 sn The sons of Seleucus II Callinicus were Seleucus III Ceraunus (ca. 227-223
38 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the enemy of the king of the north) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
39 tn Heb “and he will certainly come and overflow and cross over and return and be aroused unto a fortress.” The translation has attempted to simplify the syntax of this difficult sequence.
40 tn Heb “consider.”
41 tn Heb “[the one] desired by women.” The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.