I, Nebuchadnezzar: the text now returns to the first person account of the king, as in verses 4-18.

At the end of the days: this phrase indicates that the time mentioned in verses 16, 23, 25, and 32 had come to an end. A literal translation of days may in many cases give the wrong idea of the length of time involved. Moffatt has “When the time was over,” and Revised English Bible “At the end of the appointed time.” But it is probably better in many languages to translate “When the seven years had passed,” as in Good News Translation.

Lifted my eyes to heaven: that is, toward God in heaven. The translation does not necessarily have to use the name of God here, but it should certainly not limit itself to indicating a simple gesture of looking up at the sky. It should suggest a change in the attitude of the king toward God.

My reason returned to me: since it may not be natural to make reason the subject of a verb like returned, translators may consider “I returned to my right mind” (New English Bible), “I was restored to my right mind” (Revised English Bible), or something similar. Languages usually have a variety of ways of speaking of sanity and insanity. Translators should look for the most natural equivalent to speak of a return to sanity.

In this verse the pagan king breaks forth in another hymn of praise to the God of Daniel (compare 4.1-3). It will be important for translators to render what follows as poetry, if this is can be done in their language. There is, however, some disagreement with regard to the precise place where the actual hymn begins. Most versions, however, take the first half of this verse as a kind of introductory statement and consider the hymn as starting with the words his dominion ….

Blessed the Most High: on this name for God, see 3.26 and 4.2. In many languages the verb “to bless” is not appropriate in this context, since blessing is something that can only be done by a superior to an inferior. The meaning here is quite similar to praised and honored in the next phrase but may also be rendered “thanked” as in Bible en français courant. The cumulative effect of using a number of different words having approximately the same meaning is important. So different terms should be found if at all possible.

The parallelism of the last part of this verse (“dominion” = “kingdom” and “everlasting” = “from generation to generation”) recalls the very similar wording in verse 3.

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 .