If integrated into the book of Daniel: 14.11.

And the priests of Bel said: Good News Translation has combined this simple statement with the preceding statement into a longer sentence, which is possible since Good News Translation has moved the information about the seventy priests from verse 10 to verse 8.

What the priests propose is to leave the premises, and allow the king and Daniel to set out the food and then seal the entrance. This should prove that they are planning no trickery. If the reader is in any suspense about this, it will soon be relieved in verse 13, where the author tells us about the secret entrance to the sanctuary. The priests evidently think Daniel is as naive as the king.

Behold … O king: Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version translate “Your Majesty”; see the comments on verse 7. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version also move this phrase to the beginning of the quotation. This serves to accomplish what the Greek accomplishes with the word rendered Behold, which simply calls for attention to what follows (see the comments on Bar 3.8).

We are going outside: It needs to be made clear that the priests are going to leave the temple, leaving Daniel and the king inside.

You yourself set forth the food: There is emphasis on the subject you yourself in the Greek, and it is helpful to keep it in translation; ordinarily the priests arrange the food. Good News Translation keeps the emphasis, but makes the suggestion to the king more polite by saying “let you place the food on the table.” In some languages it will be necessary to introduce particular modal verbs or other forms that show that the priests are not giving the king a command. However, Good News Translation introduces a problem with “the table,” which is not in the Greek. There was a table in the sanctuary, to be sure; the trap door mentioned in verse 13 was beneath it, and in verse 18 the king looks at the table to see if the food placed there has disappeared. But the author cannot mean, and does not say, that twelve bushels of flour, fifty gallons of wine, and forty sheep carcasses were on a table! The priests only say that the king himself can “set out the food” (Contemporary English Version).

Mix and place the wine: The wine was probably to be mixed with water (see 2 Macc 15.39), though possibly mixing it with spices was intended. Good News Translation has “prepare the wine,” which deftly avoids the problem while expressing the essential idea. It can be safely assumed that the wine, once prepared, would be placed somewhere, so Good News Translation does not specifically translate place.

Shut the door and seal it with your signet: Good News Translation is helpful with “When you leave, you may lock the door behind you and seal it with the royal seal.” This rendering adds the ideas of leaving the temple and locking the door to clarify the proposed action for the readers’ benefit. However, it is not clear in the Greek that the door is to be locked, as Good News Translation says (see the comments on Sus 17.) It does not hurt to say so, but breaking the seal would be enough to indicate that someone had been in the temple. Door is singular here and in verse 14; it is plural in verse 18, where Good News Translation keeps the singular. We are probably to think of a pair of double doors opening from the middle. However, whether the door is single or double is unimportant to the narrative.

For seal it with your signet, compare Dan 6.17 and Matt 27.66. Entryways could be sealed with wax or clay; this could not stop anyone willing to break the seal from entering, but a broken seal would show whether or not anyone had in fact entered. A sealed entranceway, stamped with an official seal, carried the following message: Entry is forbidden under penalty of law. The official seal in this case appears to have been the king’s signet ring, one with a design that could be stamped into wax or wet clay. Contemporary English Version provides a good translation model here for cultures where sealing things with a signet ring is not practiced: Contemporary English Version explains this process in its rendering of this verse and it also adds a footnote to explain it further:

• and the priests said, “Your Majesty, we will go outside now. Please set out the food and the wine yourself, then shut the door. Drip some hot wax along the edge of the door and press your ring into the wax to leave your special mark. This will show that only you are allowed to open the door.*
* Drip some hot wax … open the door: The king’s ring had a special design on it, and he pressed the ring into the soft, hot wax. Then, after the wax cooled, the door could not be opened without breaking the wax.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.