He: since Daniel is praying to the Lord, the use of the third person pronoun will once again be clumsy in most languages. See the earlier notes on pronoun usage in Daniel’s prayer.

Confirmed his words: some other ways of expressing this idea are “fulfilled all that he said” (New English Bible), “made good the warning” (Revised English Bible), “fulfilled his word” (An American Translation), “carried out the threat” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, and Moffatt).

Our rulers who ruled us: literally “the judges who judged us.” This is the same word as used for the leaders in the Book of Judges (2.16-18). But as in the case of the Book of Judges, the sense of the term is far larger than its simple judicial meaning. It has to do with governing or leading in its broadest sense. Here the redundant statement may be expressed more naturally in most languages by omitting the words who ruled us.

A great calamity: in Hebrew, literally “a great evil.” It is clear that the reason for what happened to Jerusalem was punishment for the sins of the people. Therefore Good News Translation has restructured by substituting the verb “punished.” The usage in the following two verses supports this translation.

Under the whole heaven: here this expression is used to indicate universality. It is almost the same expression as the Aramaic equivalent in 7.27. Compare also Job 28.24; 41.11. In some languages the equivalent is “in the whole world.”

Been done: this passive idea occurs twice at the end of this verse and will have to be translated actively in many languages. The agent of the activity (punishment) is clearly God himself.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René & Ellington, John. A Handbook on Daniel. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .