My God: the personal pronoun My is dropped in Good News Translation. This may be necessary in languages where the possessive form gives the wrong idea. Or in other cases the meaning may be translated by “The God I worship,” to avoid the idea of a personal possession of God.

His angel: the same Aramaic term as in 3.28.

Shut the lions’ mouths: the subject of the verb here is not indicated in Aramaic. Grammatically it may be either God or his angel, but since the angel was fulfilling the will of God who sent him, there is no real difference between the two. It is probably better to translate so that the angel is the subject of the verb.

And they have not hurt me: the conjunction and really gives the reason for the closing of the mouths of the lions. Hence it may be better translated “so that” in many languages. This, in fact, is the reading of New Jerusalem Bible and New Revised Standard Version.

Because …: while the sentence continues in Revised Standard Version, reflecting the original, it may be advisable to begin a new sentence here, as is done in Good News Translation.

I was found blameless before him: this is technically a passive in Revised Standard Version and will have to be made active in many cases. The meaning is rather “he considered me innocent.” A literal rendering of the Aramaic is “innocence (or purity) was found in me before him.” Some other models are “I am not guilty in his eyes” or, in legal terms, “he acquitted me.”

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 .