Note that Good News Translation here inserts the words “He said” from the previous verse, for better style in English, and also for making it clearer that what follows are the words of the one explaining the vision and not of Daniel himself.

Are: in some languages the verb “to be” may not be appropriate to show the correspondence between the beasts and the kings or kingdoms. In those cases it may be better to say “resemble,” “depict,” “show,” “represent,” “stand for,” or something similar.

Kings: while the word here is literally kings, the individual kings represented the kingdoms over which they ruled. For this reason Moffatt, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, and New English Bible/Revised English Bible translate “kingdoms,” and Good News Translation has “empires.” In fact, one Aramaic manuscript as well as the ancient Greek and Latin actually has the word “kingdoms.” While this reading may not be adopted for textual reasons, there are valid translation reasons for using “kingdoms” or “empires” in some languages. Both Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament advocate translating the text that says “kings,” but under the “proposed interpretation” of Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament the following is stated: “One may indicate in a note that each of the ‘kings’ in fact incarnates one of the empires which followed each other in the Ancient Near East.”

Shall arise out of the earth: the wording of Revised Standard Version may possibly be misunderstood as a reference to some kind of resurrection from the grave. But this is certainly not the meaning of the text. The verb arise indicates “rise to power,” “come into authority,” or “take (political) control.” And out of the earth may be translated “on the earth” (New American Bible), or the whole expression may be reworded “(four kingdoms) of earthly origin will take power” (Bible en français courant).

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 .