Daniel and his associates are compared, not only with the other young men who received the same training as they did (verse 19), but also with professional advisors to the king who were already at work in Babylonia.

Ten times better: in the areas of wisdom and understanding (see verse 4), which cannot normally be measured in figures, the number ten takes on a symbolic value. So ten times better means something like “infinitely better.” But if in the receptor language the number ten does not convey this idea, then the translator may consider saying something like “very much better,” “infinitely better,” or “better without measure.” All English versions, however, seem to retain the formal equivalent using the number ten. It may also be necessary to state in what respect these young men were better than the magicians and enchanters: they were superior to the others with respect to wisdom and understanding. So it may be good to say “ten times wiser,” depending on the structure of the verse as a whole.

Magicians and enchanters: the first of these two terms (in Hebrew chartom) gives the idea of someone who specializes in predicting the unknown and performing magical or religious feats. The second (ʾashaf in Hebrew) gives more the idea of someone having a mystical power to deflect from another person any harmful events that may have been revealed to him in a dream. For further discussion of this type of word, see 2.2 below.

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 .