Daniel 5:19

5:19 Due to the greatness that he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and language groups were trembling with fear ¹  before him. He killed whom he wished, he spared ²  whom he wished, he exalted whom he wished, and he brought low whom he wished.

Daniel 2:29

2:29 “As for you, O king, while you were in your bed your thoughts turned to future things. ³  The revealer of mysteries has made known to you what will take place.

Daniel 2:42

2:42 In that the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, the latter stages of this kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.

Daniel 7:13

7:13 I was watching in the night visions,

“And with ⁴  the clouds of the sky ⁵ 

one like a son of man ⁶  was approaching.

He went up to the Ancient of Days

and was escorted ⁷  before him.

Daniel 4:4

Nebuchadnezzar Dreams of a Tree Chopped Down

4:4 (4:1) ⁸  I, Nebuchadnezzar, was relaxing in my home, ⁹  living luxuriously ¹⁰  in my palace.

[5:19]  ¹ tn Aram “were trembling and fearing.” This can be treated as a hendiadys, “were trembling with fear.”

[5:19]  ² 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”).

[2:29]  ³ tn Aram “your thoughts upon your bed went up to what will be after this.”

[7:13]  ⁴ tc The LXX has ἐπί (epi, “upon”) here (cf. Matt 24:30; 26:64). Theodotion has μετά (meta, “with”) here (cf. Mark 14:62; Rev 1:7).

[7:13]  ⁵ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[7:13]  ⁶ sn This text is probably the main OT background for Jesus’ use of the term “son of man.” In both Jewish and Christian circles the reference in the book of Daniel has traditionally been understood to refer to an individual, usually in a messianic sense. Many modern scholars, however, understand the reference to have a corporate identity. In this view, the “son of man” is to be equated with the “holy ones” (vv. 18, 21, 22, 25) or the “people of the holy ones” (v. 27) and understood as a reference to the Jewish people. Others understand Daniel’s reference to be to the angel Michael.

[7:13]  ⁷ tn Aram “they brought him near.”

[4:4]  ⁸ sn This verse marks the beginning of chap. 4 in the Aramaic text of Daniel (see the note on 4:1). The Greek OT (LXX) has the following addition: “In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign he said.” This date would suggest a link to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. In general, the LXX of chapters 4-6 is very different from the MT, so much so that the following notes will call attention only to selected readings. In Daniel 4 the LXX lacks sizable portions of material in the MT (e.g., vv. 3-6, 31-32), includes sizable portions of material not in the MT (e.g., v. 14a, parts of vv. 16, 28), has a different order of some material (e.g., v. 8 after v. 9), and in some instances is vastly different from the MT (e.g., vv. 30, 34). Whether these differences are due to an excessively paraphrastic translation technique adopted for these chapters in the LXX, or are due to differences in the underlying Vorlage of the LXX, is a disputed matter. The latter seems more likely. There is a growing trend in modern scholarship to take the LXX of chapters 4-6 much more seriously than was the case in most earlier text-critical studies that considered this issue.

[4:4]  ⁹ tn Aram “my house.”

[4:4]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “happy.”