Daniel 14:1-3
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 14
Bel and the Dragon.[a] 1 After King Astyages[b] was gathered to his ancestors, Cyrus the Persian succeeded to his kingdom. 2 Daniel was a companion of the king and was held in higher honor than any of the Friends of the King. 3 The Babylonians had an idol called Bel,[c] and every day they provided for it six bushels of fine flour, forty sheep, and six measures of wine.
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- 14:1–22 In chap. 14, readings in the Septuagint differ markedly from those in Theodotion, which is followed here. See individual notes on 1–3a, 10–11, 12–14, 15–17 and 21–22; the translation is that of Collins, Daniel, pp. 405ff, with brackets indicating additions to the Septuagint according to Collins.
- 14:1–3a These verses in the Septuagint Greek text read: “From the prophecy of Habakkuk, son of Joshua, of the tribe of Levi. 2 There was a certain man, a priest, whose name was Daniel, son of Abal, a companion of the king of Babylon. 3 There was an idol, Bel, which the Babylonians revered,…” This may represent an earlier form of the story, before it was attached to the Book of Daniel. King Astyages: the last of the Median kings, defeated by Cyrus in 550 B.C. This story preserves the fiction of a successive Median and Persian rule of Babylon.
- 14:3 Bel: see note on 4:5.
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