All the inhabitants of the earth: the word all is omitted from Good News Translation, but it should be included in the translation unless there are very strong reasons for omitting it.

Are accounted as nothing: the passive verb here should probably be rendered as an active one in order to make clear the fact that God is the agent. But some languages may prefer “all people on earth are as nothing in his eyes,” retaining a structure similar to the passive but insuring that the subject is understood. The verb accounted has the idea of evaluation, showing that God considers the population of the world as utterly insignificant, for they cannot oppose his will.

The host: in the Bible the word host sometimes stands for the armies of Israel, sometimes for the stars and other heavenly beings (Isa 40.26; Psa 33.6), and sometimes for angels (Psa 103.21; Luke 2.13). In this context, where the term is joined with of heaven, the context favors the last meaning, and it is good to make this clear in the translation in order to avoid the term being taken in a military sense.

Note that Good News Translation restructures the middle of this verse so that the phrase he does according to his will is translated by “are under his control,” and instead of making God the grammatical subject, “angels” and “people” are used.

None can stay his hand: since hand is often used to represent “power” in Scripture (1.2; 2.38; 3.17), it is often better to give this meaning directly in the translation. In some cases it may be appropriate to say simply “no one can stop him.”

Or say to him, “What doest thou?”: this direct question is better rendered as indirect speech in most languages. Some models are “question what he does” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible) or, very similarly, “ask him what he is doing” (Moffatt).

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 .