Ten kings shall arise: on the verb arise see verse 17 and comments. It will be essential in most languages to indicate clearly whether these ten kings are seen as ruling at the same time or as coming in succession one after the other. Bible en français courant translates “will succeed each other.” Another possible model is “ten kings will rule over that empire one after the other.”

And: the connection between the reign of the ten kings and the eleventh should be more clearly established. This may be done by shifting the words after them forward to the beginning of the sentence about the eleventh king. Or the sentence can be started with “then.”

Another: it will be important in the translation to make it clear that this is another king. And some may even prefer to say “an eleventh king,” as in Bible en français courant.

Shall put down three kings: it should also be made clear that the three kings referred to here are three of the ten kings mentioned earlier. So this should probably be translated “shall put down three of them” or “shall defeat three of those kings.”

Historically this text may be applied quite well to Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.), who followed a succession of rulers of the Seleucid dynasty and took control only after doing away with several rivals for royal power. This information may be put in a footnote, but it should not be included in the text of the apocalyptic vision.

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 .