If integrated into the book of Daniel: 3.39

Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted as though it were with burnt offerings …: Yet, “But” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), or some strong device is needed to introduce the contrast between this verse and the previous one. Even though in exile there is no temple, no altar where observant Jews may offer the prescribed sacrifices, Azariah prays that their contrite heart and humble spirit be accepted by God as being as valid as the offering of stockyards-full of livestock (compare Psa 51.16-17; Hos 6.6; Micah 6.6-7). Contrite means “repentant” or “truly sorry for sins,” so Contemporary English Version renders with a contrite heart and a humble spirit as “if we are humble and truly sorry for our sins.” Good News Translation offers a remarkably good restructuring of some rather involved Greek in this verse. “We come to you” and “begging you” correspond to nothing specific in the Greek but are clearly implied; indeed, this very verse is itself such a coming to God and pleading. “Repentant hearts and humble spirits” is plural in Good News Translation to correspond with the plural subject “we.” May we be accepted as though it were with burnt offerings may be translated “begging you to accept us just as if we had offered” (similarly Good News Translation).

Tens of thousands of fat lambs is literally correct, but “thousands of fat lambs” (Good News Translation) works as well. In any case, this expression is a literary device called hyperbole, overstatement, or exaggeration.

In one printed Greek text, verse 17 begins with as though it were …; New American Bible follows this numbering.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.