Daniel 5:18-19

5:18 As for you, O king, the most high God bestowed on your father Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, greatness, honor, and majesty. ¹  5:19 Due to the greatness that he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and language groups were trembling with fear ²  before him. He killed whom he wished, he spared ³  whom he wished, he exalted whom he wished, and he brought low whom he wished.

Daniel 5:26-28

5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: ⁴  As for mene ⁵  – God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. 5:27 As for teqel – you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres ⁶  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

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¹ tn Or “royal greatness and majestic honor,” if the four terms are understood as a double hendiadys.

² tn Aram “were trembling and fearing.” This can be treated as a hendiadys, “were trembling with fear.”

³ tn Aram “let live.” This Aramaic form is the aphel participle of חַיָה(khayah, “to live”). Theodotion and the Vulgate mistakenly take the form to be from מְחָא (mÿkha’, “to smite”).

⁴ tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.

⁵ tn The Aramaic term מְנֵא (mÿne’) is a noun referring to a measure of weight. The linkage here to the verb “to number” (Aram. מְנָה, mÿnah) is a case of paronomasia rather than strict etymology. So also with תְּקֵל (tÿqel) and פַרְסִין (farsin). In the latter case there is an obvious wordplay with the name “Persian.”

⁶ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.