And whereas …: the form used here may be taken simply to introduce the next in a series of events, “Next…” with a full stop at the end of this verse. Or it may be understood as in Revised Standard Version, introducing (or reintroducing) the vision that is to be explained in the following verse. Anchor Bible begins with “As for the king’s vision….” The Revised Standard Version translation reflects the structure of the Aramaic in making verses 23-25 one very long sentence. But in most languages it is probably better to make two or more sentences of these verses. See also comments at the beginning of verses 24 and 25.

The king: instead of using the third person reference to the king, it will be much more natural in many languages to use the second person singular pronoun “you,” or perhaps the phrase “you, O king.” On the grammatical change of person, see comments on 2.10.

A watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven: see verse 13.

Destroy it: this is a way of summarizing the meaning of that part of verse 14 which used several different verbal expressions, including “cut off,” “strip off,” and “scatter.”

Most of the rest of this verse is a repetition of the essential content of verses 15 and 16 above.

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 .