The name Daniel occurs three different times in the first half of this verse. Such repetition may be awkward in many languages and can be reduced as in Good News Translation.

Cried out … and said: the use of both of these verbs may be redundant in certain languages, and the verbs can be reduced so that the first one is used exclusively: “shouted” or “called out.”

In a tone of anguish: some ancient translations have “in a loud voice.” But most follow the idea of anguish or sorrow: “anxiously” (New English Bible/Revised English Bible and New Revised Standard Version as well as Good News Translation), “in a sorrowful voice” (An American Translation), “in a mournful voice” (New Jerusalem Bible). One Aramaic lexicon says that the word means “sad.” It is clear in any case that the king was very distressed over the situation of Daniel.

The living God: this expression is used frequently in the New Testament (Matt 26.63; John 6.69; Heb 9.14, for example) and elsewhere in the Old Testament (Deut 5.26; Josh 3.10; 1 Sam 17.26). But in some languages this poses serious problems, since the descriptive term living is considered unnecessarily redundant.

Serve continually …: see verse 16, where the same terms are used, except for from the lions.

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 .