Grew and became strong: the two verbs in Aramaic indicate clearly a change in the state of the tree. While it was already said to be very tall in the previous verse, some languages may require something like “grew still taller and more powerful” (similar to Bible en français courant).

Its top reached to heaven: literally “its height touched the skies.” The word translated top here is the same as the one for “height” in verse 10. The word translated heaven in Revised Standard Version is not intended to speak of the dwelling place of God but refers to the sky. However, in some languages there is only one word for the two ideas. In this context it may be possible in some cases to translate “… reached to the clouds.”

It was visible: the passive formulation in this case may be legitimately translated “they (indefinite) could see it” or “people could see it.”

To the end of the whole earth: according to some primitive notions, the earth was thought of as an immense flat disk. It would therefore be possible to see the top of the tree from any point in the world. But it must be kept in mind that this is a figure of speech and its literal validity is not in focus. The whole phrase may be rendered “people could see it from everywhere in the world” or “they could observe the tree from all over the earth.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René & Ellington, John. A Handbook on Daniel. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .