Presidents … prefects … counselors … governors: once again there is a list of government officials, but the order differs from that of 3.3. Good News Translation uses a more summary expression, “all of us who administer your empire,” but then goes on to list each title separately.

Establish an ordinance and enforce an interdict: the wording of Revised Standard Version may give the impression that the ordinance and the interdict were two different things, but this is not the case. What the officials were asking was that the king issue a decree and then guarantee that it be enforced.

Makes petition: literally “prays a prayer.” This simply means “prays” as indicated in the rendering of New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, and New Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation has “request anything,” while Moffatt has “offer a prayer.”

Shall be cast: this passive form may be rendered in some languages by the impersonal third person pronoun “they will cast…,” or possibly by using some other indefinite subject such as “your servants.”

Into the den of lions: the expression den of lions has become well known in English, but in other languages it will probably be necessary to describe what this refers to: “in a big hole where lions are imprisoned” or, more generally, “in a place where they keep lions.” But translators should avoid the use of a word like “cage,” which is not suitable to the remainder of the story. The definite article of Revised Standard Version, the den, is uncalled for in this first mention of the place where the lions are kept. It has been dropped in favor of the indefinite “a den” in New Revised Standard Version and New Jerusalem Bible, and “a pit” in Good News Translation.

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 .