Daniel 2:2-4 New English Translation
2 The king issued an order[a] to summon the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and wise men[b] in order to explain his dreams to him.[c] So they came and awaited the king’s instructions.[d]
3 The king told them, “I have had a dream,[e] and I[f] am anxious to understand the dream.” 4 The wise men replied to the king: [What follows is in Aramaic[g]] “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will disclose its[h] interpretation.”
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- Daniel 2:2 tn Heb “said.” So also in v. 12.
- Daniel 2:2 tn Heb “Chaldeans.” The term Chaldeans (Hebrew כַּשְׂדִּים, kasdim) is used in the book of Daniel both in an ethnic sense and, as here, to refer to a caste of Babylonian wise men and astrologers.
- Daniel 2:2 tn Heb “to explain to the king his dreams.”
- Daniel 2:2 tn Heb “stood before the king.”
- Daniel 2:3 tn Heb “I have dreamed a dream” (so KJV, ASV).
- Daniel 2:3 tn Heb “my spirit.”
- Daniel 2:4 sn Contrary to common belief, the point here is not that the wise men (Chaldeans) replied to the king in the Aramaic language, or that this language was uniquely the language of the Chaldeans. It was this view that led in the past to Aramaic being referred to as “Chaldee.” Aramaic was used as a lingua franca during this period; its origins and usage were not restricted to the Babylonians. Rather, this phrase is better understood as an editorial note (cf. NAB) marking the fact that from 2:4b through 7:28 the language of the book shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic. In 8:1, and for the remainder of the book, the language returns to Hebrew. Various views have been advanced to account for this change of language, most of which are unconvincing. The change in language likely reflects stages in the transmission history of the book of Daniel or factors in its composition history.
- Daniel 2:4 tn Or “the.”
New English Translation (NET)
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