When they fall: the pronoun reference may need to be made clearer in some cases. They stands for “the people who know their God” in verse 32. The verb fall very probably does not refer to mere stumbling but to falling in battle, and therefore refers to death. Another possible way to word this may be “during the course of the persecutions” (Bible en français courant), or possibly “while they (indefinite) were killing God’s people.”
They shall receive a little help: literally “they will be helped with little help,” or “they will not receive much help,” or “the help they receive will be small.”
Join themselves to them: in all probability this refers to the joining of insincere people to “those who are faithful to their God” (verse 32).
With flattery: literally “in slipperiness,” or perhaps more accurately, “by trickery” (compare verses 21 and 32). Some other possible renderings are “insincerely” (Anchor Bible) or “with hypocrisy” (An American Translation).
The persecution by Antiochus IV provoked the passive resistance of the Chasidim (the Pious Ones, or the Righteous Ones), who expected help only by the direct intervention of God (an attitude praised by the author of Daniel in verse 14), and the active resistance of the Hasmoneans, who distinguished themselves in the armed struggle of the Maccabees (a method criticized in the Book of Daniel). The writer thinks that the successes of the active resistance do not constitute anything more than negligible help toward the final victory of Judaism. And in the eyes of the author, the efforts to unite the two kinds of resistance represented “hypocrisy.” The two forms of resistance were, in fact, impossible to reconcile as far as he was concerned, because the secret intention of the “men of violence” (verse 14) was to take control of the entire resistance movement.
Some commentators interpret the last part of this verse differently. Some people hypocritically joined the armed resistance rather than the passive resistance, due to the violent pressure put on them by Judas Maccabeus (for example, the forced circumcision of children and the burning alive of adversaries). This interpretation seems less convincing, because it requires that the pronoun them (in the expression join themselves to them) must take an antecedent different from the subject of the main statement.
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 .