Gave Daniel high honors: literally “made Daniel great.” But the Aramaic verb denotes a position of honor rather than of political power. The question of political power is dealt with later in the verse.

Many great gifts: the use of the two adjectives suggests respectively the quantity and the quality of the presents given.

Made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon: literally “caused him to rule….” While the original has only one verb here, it is applied to two distinct positions. Daniel is firstly made ruler over the province of Babylon, and he is also made chief prefect, or superintendent, over the entire group of royal advisors. The term used here should fit the term that occurs in 3.2; see comments there.

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 .