If integrated into the book of Daniel: 14.12.

If you do not find that Bel has eaten it all may be rendered “if you find that Bel hasn’t eaten all the food and drunk the wine.”

We will die: This is literal, but the meaning is as New Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible have it: “let us be put to death.” An English-speaking reader would understand “you can put us to death” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) to mean the same thing.

Or else Daniel will: The Greek is abruptly shortened here; the whole verse is literally “and having come early, if you do not find everything eaten by Bel, we will die or Daniel who lies against us.” Literally it says that if the king finds that Bel has not eaten the food, someone must die—either the priests or Daniel. What is meant, of course, is just what Good News Translation says, that if the king finds Bel has eaten the food, Daniel must die. In a way, the shortening is forceful and dramatic. We can picture one of the priests saying “we will die,” but then turning with a vicious sneer, pointing to Daniel, and spitting out “or Daniel will, that liar!” But since the translator cannot rely on a skillful oral reader to act out the story, it is good to add some clarification to the translation. Or else Daniel will is a minimum. Good News Translation is much wordier than the Greek, and it loses the strong disrespect for Daniel here in the Greek, but it is clear. In some languages there will be special demonstratives that show this derogatory or insulting feeling; for example, “or this fellow Daniel here.”

Who is telling lies about us: Daniel has not actually accused the priests of anything, of course. They simply assume this, since they know the truth. The naive king has said that Daniel would die for blaspheming the god Bel. The priests, who know the truth, want Daniel to die for telling “lies” against them.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• When you return in the morning [or, when the sun rises], if you find that Bel hasn’t eaten all the food and wine, you can put us to death [or, execute us]. But if the food is all gone, this will prove that this fellow Daniel here has been lying against us, and you can put him to death.

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.