Daniel 2:5

2:5 The king replied ¹  to the wise men, “My decision is firm. ²  If you do not inform me of both the dream and its interpretation, you will be dismembered ³  and your homes reduced to rubble!

Daniel 3:14

3:14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don’t serve my gods and that you don’t pay homage to the golden statue that I erected?

Daniel 4:8

4:8 Later Daniel entered (whose name is Belteshazzar after the name of my god, ⁴  and in whom there is a spirit of the holy gods). I recounted the dream for him as well,

Daniel 6:14

6:14 When the king heard this, ⁵  he was very upset and began thinking about ⁶  how he might rescue Daniel. Until late afternoon ⁷  he was struggling to find a way to rescue him.

Daniel 7:1

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

7:1 In the first ⁸  year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had ⁹  a dream filled with visions ¹⁰  while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. ¹¹ 

[2:5]  ¹ tn Aram “answered and said,” a common idiom to indicate a reply, but redundant in contemporary English.

[2:5]  ² tn It seems clear from what follows that Nebuchadnezzar clearly recalls the content of the dream, although obviously he does not know what to make of it. By not divulging the dream itself to the would-be interpreters, he intends to find out whether they are simply leading him on. If they can tell him the dream’s content, which he is able to verify, he then can have confidence in their interpretation, which is what eludes him. The translation “the matter is gone from me” (cf. KJV, ASV), suggesting that the king had simply forgotten the dream, is incorrect. The Aramaic word used here (אַזְדָּא, ’azda’) is probably of Persian origin; it occurs in the OT only here and in v. 8. There are two main possibilities for the meaning of the word: “the matter is promulgated by me” (see KBL 1048 s.v.) and therefore “publicly known” (cf. NRSV; F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 62-63, §189), or “the matter is irrevocable” (cf. NAB, NIV, TEV, CEV, NLT; HALOT 1808 s.v. אזד; cf. also BDB 1079 s.v.). The present translation reflects this latter option. See further E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 3.

[2:5]  ³ tn Aram “made limbs.” Cf. 3:29.

[4:8]  ⁴ sn This explanation of the meaning of the name Belteshazzar may be more of a paronomasia than a strict etymology.

[6:14]  ⁵ tn Aram “the word.”

[6:14]  ⁶ tn Aram “placed his mind on.”

[6:14]  ⁷ tn Aram “the entrances of the sun.”

[7:1]  ⁸ 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.

[7:1]  ⁹ tn Aram “saw.”

[7:1]  ¹⁰ 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.

[7:1]  ¹¹ tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”