I raised my eyes and saw: this is a typically Hebrew expression where the first part (I raised my eyes) does not imply in Hebrew that the person was at first looking downward, but it marks the beginning of the action and is followed by a second verb (saw) indicating the essential part of the action. It is similar to “opened my mouth and spoke” in 10.16. But it may be more natural in other languages to use a single verbal expression to translate both parts, as in Good News Translation.

Behold: this interjection will be considered redundant in some languages and should therefore be omitted. But in other languages where the use of such forms is natural and frequent, it may be retained. Here it serves to make the description more dramatic. Compare 2.31; 4.10; 7.2.

The bank of the river: the word translated bank is really a very general term in Hebrew which has a wide variety of meanings depending on the context in which it is used. Here it may be rendered by a preposition like “beside” or “by.” Another way of conveying the same basic meaning is that of New Jerusalem Bible: “between me and the river.” It will be noted that New Jerusalem Bible and Anchor Bible have “before the gate” at this point, but translators are advised against using “gate” in the previous verse.

Both horns were high: the mention of two horns and both horns so close together may sound strange and unnecessary in some languages. They represent the same Hebrew words. And there is in fact some textual evidence to omit the second occurrence (both horns), but this may be done for the sake of naturalness rather than for textual reasons. Each language will have its own way of describing particularly large animal horns, but in English it is much more natural to speak of “long horns” (as in Good News Translation and other versions) rather than “high horns.” The two horns represent the Medes and the Persians (see verse 20). It was the Persians who took over the empire from the Medes. But this information should be restricted to footnotes and not placed in the translation itself.

And the higher one came up last: the conjunction and should probably be rendered differently in most languages. Since what follows is contrary to the reader’s expectation, it may be more effective to say something like “but” or “however.” The word translated last in Revised Standard Version may be understood as meaning later in time (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Moffatt) or in a position behind the other horn (New English Bible, An American Translation). New American Bible handles the whole matter by saying “the one (was) larger and newer than the other.” See also Good News Translation.

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 .