Door: if this word is taken in its more restricted sense, it may be misleading. According to some interpreters this was an opening at the top of the furnace or oven, but others see it as an opening in the side. New American Bible and Anchor Bible have “opening,” while New Jerusalem Bible and An American Translation translate “the mouth” of the furnace. A side opening would certainly make it easier for the men on the inside to come forth.

Said: the context seems to require more than a bland, literal rendering of this verb. Something like “shouted” or “yelled” is probably called for in many languages.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: the three names are cited twice in this verse. It is probably best to translate them in the first occurrence, since they are vocatives. However, when the narrative resumes, many translators will probably want to change to the pronoun “they” as in Good News Translation, or to say something like “all three of them” (Bible en français courant).

The Most High God: although this title is used in the Psalms, elsewhere it is found only on the lips of non-Jews (Gen 14.18; Num 24.16 and Isa 14.14) as a name for the God of Israel. It expresses the greatness of this God without necessarily stressing that he is greater than all other gods. For this reason some object to the rendering “the Supreme God” in Good News Translation.

Come forth, and come here: these two imperatives are not to be thought of as separate and distinct commands. Rather they have the combined force of the idiomatic English “come out here,” urging the men to leave the place where they were in order to come to the place where the king was. Naturalness in the translator’s language should be the determining factor as to whether one or two imperatives are used in translation.

Then: note that Good News Translation adds “at once” at the end of the sentence in order to make the narrative more vivid. This can be justified on the grounds that the transition word at the beginning of the sentence may carry this sense.

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 .