Fear not: Daniel’s trembling was due to his fear because of the appearance of the heavenly being. He is therefore instructed to abandon his fear. This may be better translated in some languages as “stop being afraid” or “leave your apprehension.”

Set your mind to understand: in many languages it will be necessary to state clearly what it was that Daniel was trying to understand. If this is the case, translators may wish to say something like “ever since you started trying to understand the message (or revelation, vision, oracle),” using the same term as in verse 1.

Humbled yourself: in some languages it is possible to use an idiomatic expression like “lower your heart” or “abase yourself.” The reference is probably to Daniel’s self-denial described in verse 3. In many cases it will be more natural to reverse the order of the two verbs “understand” and “humbled yourself.” Logically, humbling yourself comes before the attempt to gain understanding.

Your words have been heard: this clearly means that the words that were spoken to God in prayer had been heard by him. It is therefore better in many languages to express the idea of prayer directly and transform the passive to an active form. A good model for this is the Good News Translation rendering above.

I have come because of your words: or, as New International Version has it, “I have come in response to them.” Another model is “I have come to bring the answer (to your prayer).”

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 .