If integrated into the book of Daniel: 14.6.

Do you not think that Bel is a living God?: Good News Translation does well with this verse. When Daniel refers to his god as “the living God,” he uses what is virtually a title of the God of Israel. The king misses this subtlety, and uses Daniel’s phrase in precisely the way Good News Translation translates it: “And don’t you believe that our god Bel is really alive?” He goes on to offer a self-defeating “proof,” by pointing to how much Bel eats and drinks. Ironically, by saying that Bel eats and drinks, he is demonstrating considerably less than divinity—only mortality. Daniel is going to demonstrate that Bel is not even mortal—only inanimate. There is something a bit comic about the king’s question, and Good News Translation captures it nicely. Compare verse 24. Revised Standard Version uses God with a capital letter. However, Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version are more correct with “god.” The king simply considers Bel, and even Daniel’s god, one among many gods.

Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day? may be rendered “Haven’t you seen how much he eats and drinks every day?” (Good News Translation; similarly Contemporary English Version).

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.