Was full of fury: most languages have rather vivid ways of describing a person who becomes uncontrollably angry, and just such an expression is required here. Some English models in addition to Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation above, are “was furious” (New International Version) or “flew into a rage” (New English Bible).

The expression of his face was changed: the Revised Standard Version rendering at this point is rather too mild. The idea is that the extreme anger that is described by full of fury became visible on his face. Moffatt has “his face was distorted with rage.” It may be better in some languages to take these two expressions and combine them in a single phrase that captures the vividness of the original, as in New American Bible: “Nebuchadnezzar’s face became livid with utter rage….”

While there is no transition word in Revised Standard Version (reflecting the original), idiomatic English seems to require something like “So” in Good News Translation. This may also be the case in a number of other languages.

He ordered …: literally “He answered and said”; but in this context the verb “to say” has the force of a command. In many languages it will be necessary to say who it was that the king commanded to carry out his orders. So it will be necessary to say “commanded his servants” or “ordered his men.”

Heated … be heated: these passive forms in English will have to be made active in many languages; but if the translators have already added “his men” or “his servants,” then the whole phrase can be rendered “he commanded the men to heat the furnace … more than they normally heated it.”

Furnace: see verse 6. In this context it may be more natural in some languages to say that “he commanded his men to make the fire burn … hotter,” particularly if an expression including the term “fire” is used as the equivalent for furnace. Even where some term for furnace can be found and used, it may be that the more natural way of expressing this idea will be to say that “he commanded that the fire be increased…” or something similar.

Seven times more than it was wont to be heated: the repetition of the verb “to heat” may be unnatural in some languages, and if so it can be omitted as in Good News Translation. The number seven is more figurative than literal, since there was no thermometer to measure the heat precisely. However, it may be acceptable in many languages to translate it literally here.

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 .