If integrated into the book of Daniel: 3.50

Revised Standard Version begins this verse with the connector and, and later it has the connector so that. Good News Translation reverses the order of these two connectors. Either order is possible.

Made the midst of the furnace like a moist whistling wind: The wind is described in two ways. It is laden with dew, so it can be referred to as moist, “cool” (Good News Translation), or even “moist and cool.” Dew is associated with relief from heat; see Sir 18.16; 43.22. The wind also makes a sound; the Greek verb rendered whistling does not refer to the wind blowing, but to the sound it makes (compare Wis 17.18). Good News Translation translates wind as “breeze,” since this is a good English word to describe a gentle movement of air with a refreshing quality. This is not a strong wind, but it can be conceived as blowing with enough force to make a whistling noise. Breezes do not, however, normally “whistle” in English and Good News Translation has sacrificed the sound to build in the idea of pleasant relief. Good News Translation also has left out the idea of in the midst of the furnace. Contemporary English Version includes this phrase by saying “the inside of the furnace felt as if a cool breeze were blowing.”

The fire did not touch them at all: The pronoun them means “the three men” (Contemporary English Version).

Hurt or trouble them: Good News Translation “hurt them in any way” expresses the meaning without trying to make distinctions between the two verbs that are close in meaning here. Moore translates “it did not hurt or even annoy them.”

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.