And: New International Version and New American Bible translate “Then.” But most English versions rightly leave the conjunction untranslated.

The kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms: this literal rendering of the Aramaic is confusing, since it is unclear what is meant by the kingdom … of the kingdoms. The three terms may be reduced to two in many languages by redistributing the components of meaning.

The kingdoms under the whole heaven: the words under the whole heaven, or literally “under all the heavens,” constitute another way of saying “in the whole world” or “on all the earth.” The word for whole or “all” may legitimately be transposed to qualify “kingdoms.” Hence the Good News Translation rendering “all the kingdoms on earth.” Compare also “all the kingdoms under heaven” (New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New English Bible/Revised English Bible).

The passive expression shall be given will have to be made active in many languages, and God will become the subject. In these cases a possible model for the first part of this verse is “Then the Most High God will give power to rule to those people who belong to him. They will rule over all the kingdoms in the whole world, with power and greatness.”

Their kingdom: grammatically the possessive pronoun in Aramaic may refer to “the people” or to “the Most High (God).” But virtually all English versions take the pronoun as referring to “people,” as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. The parallel with verse 14 as well as certain other indications in the context of this chapter argue strongly in favor of this interpretation.

The people of the saints of the Most High: this expression differs from the one in verses 18, 22, and 25 in the addition of the word people. This addition may cause problems in some languages, since the saints are people, and the translation of the term “saints” may in fact be something like “people of God.” It would, of course, be absurd to say “the people of the people of God.” The meaning is the same as in the previous verses, where only “the saints of the Most High” occurs.

An everlasting kingdom: devout believers were convinced that, when the Jewish worship was reestablished, the much-acclaimed divine event that would bring in the final age would take place, and that nothing could change the situation after that.

All dominions shall serve and obey them: the two Aramaic verbs corresponding to Revised Standard Version serve and obey have very similar meanings. The first, already used in verse 14, has a slightly broader meaning than the second. And for this reason it is possible to reverse the order as is done in Bible en français courant, “will obey him and will serve him.” Naturalness in the translation must be the determining factor.

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 .