You: the pronoun here is emphatic and seems to underline the fact that the accused have gone against the orders of the king himself. If possible, this emphasis should be retained in the translation.

O king: see 2.4.

Made a decree: or, probably better, “sent out (to his subjects) a decree.” On the word decree compare 2.13.

In some languages it may be more natural to change from indirect to direct speech and say something like “You … issued the following order: ‘Every person…’ ” (as is done in Bible en français courant).

Horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe: see verses 5 and 7. The third repetition of this list may be too much for some languages, and it may be advisable to summarize at this point, as in Good News Translation “as soon as the music starts.”

Fall down: see verse 5.

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 .