DAN 8:1 Parallel Verse View

Note: This view shows ‘verses’ which are not natural language units and hence sometimes only part of a sentence will be visible—click on any Bible version abbreviation down the left-hand side to see the verse in more of its context. Normally the OET discourages the reading of individual ‘verses’, but this view is only designed as a tool for doing comparisons of different translations—the older translations are further down the page (so you can read up from the bottom to trace the English translation history). The OET segments on this page are still very early looks into the unfinished texts of the Open English Translation of the Bible—please double-check these texts in advance before using in public.

Text critical issues=none Clarity of original=clear Importance to us=normal (All still tentative.)

OET (OET-RV) In the third year of King Belshatstsar’s reign, I, Daniel, had another vision—different from the previous one.

Key: khaki:verbs.
Note: Automatic aligning of the OET-RV to the LV is done by some temporary software, hence the OET-RV alignments are incomplete (and may occasionally be wrong).

ULT In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, I, Daniel, had a vision appear to me (after the one that appeared to me at the first).

UST During the third year that Belshazzar was the King of Babylonia, I had another vision.

OEB No OEB DAN book available

WEBBE In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first.

WMBB (Same as above)

NET In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me previously.

LSV “In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision has appeared to me—I Daniel—after that which had appeared to me at the beginning.

FBV In the third year of King Belshazzar's reign I, Daniel, saw another vision after the one I had seen previously.

T4T During the third year that Belshazzar was the King of Babylonia, I had another vision.

LEB In the third year of the kingdom of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared _⌊to me, Daniel_⌋,[fn] after the one that appeared to me _⌊previously_⌋.[fn]

8:1 Literally “I Daniel”

8:1 Literally “in the beginning”

BBE In the third year of the rule of Belshazzar the king, a vision was seen by me, Daniel, after the one I saw at first.

Moff In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, following the former vision.

JPS In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

ASV In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me, Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

DRA In the third year of the reign of king Baltasar, a vision appeared to me. I Daniel, after what I had seen in the beginning,

YLT 'In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision hath appeared unto me — I Daniel — after that which had appeared unto me at the beginning.

Drby In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared unto me, [even] to me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

RV In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

SLT In the third year to the kingdom of Belshazzar the king a vision was seen to me, I Daniel, after that being seen to me in the beginning.

Wbstr In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first.

KJB-1769 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

KJB-1611 ¶ In the third yeere of the reigne of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared vnto mee, euen vnto me Daniel, after that which appeared vnto me at the first.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above, apart from marking of added words (and possibly capitalisation and punctuation))

Bshps In the third yere of the raigne of king Balthasar, there appeared a vision vnto me euen vnto me Daniel, after that which I had seene in the beginning.
(In the third year of the reign of king Balthasar, there appeared a vision unto me even unto me Daniel, after that which I had seen in the beginning.)

Gnva In the thirde yeere of the reigne of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared vnto mee, euen vnto me Daniel, after that which appeared vnto mee at the first.
(In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. )

Cvdl In the thirde yeare off the raigne of kinge Balthasar, there apeared a visio vnto me Daniel, after that I had sene the first.
(In the third year off the reign of king Balthasar, there appeared a visio unto me Daniel, after that I had seen the first.)

Wycl In the thridde yeer of the rewme of Balthasar, the king, a visioun apperide to me. Y, Danyel, after that thing that Y hadde seyn in the bigynnyng,
(In the third year of the realm of Balthasar, the king, a vision appeared to me. I, Daniel, after that thing that I had seen in the beginning,)

Luth Im dritten Jahr des Königreichs des Königs Belsazer erschien mir, Daniel, ein Gesicht nach dem, so mir am ersten erschienen war.
(In_the third year the kingdom the kings Belsazer appeared to_me, Daniel, a vision/face after to_him, so to_me in/at/on_the first appeared was.)

ClVg Anno tertio regni Baltassar regis, visio apparuit mihi. Ego Daniel, post id quod videram in principio,
(In_the_year third of_the_kingdom Baltassar king, vision appeared to_me. I Daniel, after that that I_had_seen in/into/on at_the_beginning, )

SOTN SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 8:1–27 Daniel had a dream about a ram and a goat

At this point in the narrative, the author of the book of Daniel again began to write in the Hebrew language. He described another vision, this one occurring during the third year of Belshazzar’s reign over Babylon. In this vision Daniel was by the bank of a canal near the city of Susa. He saw a very powerful ram with two horns that charged in all directions. Next he saw a goat with one large horn between its eyes. The goat attacked and defeated the ram and grew very powerful. Its large horn broke and four prominent horns grew in its place. From one of those four horns grew a small horn. That little horn grew as high as the stars, as high as the army of heaven, and as high as the commander of the army. When it was at its highest, it stopped the daily sacrifices and desecrated the temple.

The angel Gabriel came to Daniel and explained the meaning of what he had seen. The ram and the goat represented kings and their kingdoms. The little horn represented a particularly wicked king. That king would even defy God, but in the end that wicked king would be destroyed.

Some versions have two headings within this section. For example:

NET Daniel Has a Vision of a Goat and a Ram (8:1)

An Angel Interprets Daniel’s Vision (8:15)

NRSV Vision of a Ram and a Goat (8:1)

Gabriel Interprets the Vision (8:15)

GNT Daniel’s Vision of a Ram and a Goat

The Angel Gabriel Explains the Vision (8:15)

BFrCL88 Second vision: the Ram and the Goat (8:1)

Interpretation of the second vision (8:15)

GeCL97 A second vision: The battle between the Ram and the Goat (8:1)

The meaning of the vision of the ram and the goat (8:15)

There are a number of similarities between chapter eight and chapter seven. For example, both chapters use symbolic language to describe kingdoms, and both use the symbol of a horn to refer to particular rulers of those kingdoms. In spite of these similarities, it is important to understand that the symbols in the two chapters do not necessarily refer to the same things. For example, while there are similarities between the two little horns, there are also important differences. The Notes will explain some of these differences. The Notes will also suggest ways to translate these symbols.

As noted above, the chapter is divided into two parts, one that describes the vision and one that gives the interpretation of the vision. Both parts lead to a climax. In the first part the horn grew until it became so great that it succeeded in everything it did (8:12). A similar sequence of events occurs in the second part of the vision. Gabriel described the growth of the horn and its climactic success (8:24–26). At the end of the chapter, Gabriel announced that God would destroy the horn (8:25).

The vision includes a number of images that may seem obscure and confusing. It is usually best to translate these images in a literal way. Even Daniel did not understand the full meaning of what he saw.

Paragraph 8:1–2

This paragraph gives the setting of this new vision.

8:1a

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar,

¶ When King Belshazzar was in the third year of his reign,
¶ During the third year that Belshazzar was king of Babylonia,
¶ After King Belshazzar had ruled in Babylon for more than two years,

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar: See the Notes at 1:1a; 2:1a. This phrase indicates when the events of this chapter happened. Belshazzar was in his third year as king of Babylon.Goldingay (Daniel, 208) suggests the date 548/547 B.C. Baldwin (Daniel, 155) has 550/549. The NET and NIV notes suggest 551 B.C. So the events in this chapter, like the events of chapter 7, happened before the events in chapter 5. Here are some other ways to translate this opening phrase:

In Belshazzar’s third year as king (GW)

In the third year that Belshazzar was king (GNT)

Belshazzar ruled as king of Babylonia for over two years. Then

reign: The Hebrew word that the BSB translates as reign here refers to the period of time when Belshazzar was the king of Babylonia. In some languages it may be more natural to translate this idea with a verb. For example:

when Belshazzar ruled in/over Babylon

8:1b

a vision appeared to me, Daniel,

I, Daniel, saw a vision.
another vision came/appeared to me, to Daniel,
this writer, that is, Daniel, saw a second vision.

a vision appeared to me, Daniel: In some languages it may be more natural to translate this as:

I, Daniel, saw a vision (GW)

a vision appeared to me, Daniel (RSV)

vision: In English, a vision is like a dream. It is something that a person sees, but not with his normal sight. It differs from a dream in that a person does not have to be asleep to see a vision.In Daniel the Hebrew words that the BSB translates as “dream” and vision are often used interchangeably. See Daniel 4:5a, b. Translate using the word that most naturally communicates this meaning in your language.

me, Daniel: This phrase emphasizes that it was Daniel himself who was telling the story. In some languages, it may not be natural to use both the name and the pronoun.

In order to make it clear that Daniel was the writing these words, the CEV begins the chapter with the phrase: “Daniel wrote:”.

8:1c

subsequent to the one that had appeared to me earlier.

This vision followed/succeeded the vision I had seen previously.
two years after the first vision.
It was a successor/sequel to the one I had seen two years earlier.

subsequent to the one that had appeared to me earlier: This clause means that the vision recorded in Daniel 8 came to him after the vision that Daniel saw in Daniel 7. In some languages it may be natural to begin a new sentence. For example:

This vision came after the one I saw earlier (GW)

I saw this vision after the one I had seen before.

This clause repeats information from 8:1b. The repetition implies that this second vision was different but related to the previous one.

the one that had appeared to me earlier: Daniel was referring to the vision he had described in chapter 7. In some languages it may be necessary to be more precise. For example:

the one I saw two years earlier

the vision I saw/had during Belshazzar’s first year as king

General Comment on 8:1a–c

In some languages the repetition may not be natural. In that case, it may be possible to combine and simplify the information in these three verse parts. For example:

In the third year that Belshazzar was king, I saw a second vision. (GNT)

I saw a second vision in the third year that Belshazzar was king.