| 48. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with edayin {אֱדַ֨יִן | ʾĕḏayin} ‘then’, a forward-moving discourse marker linking the king’s response to Daniel’s prior revelation. The subject malka {מַלְכָּ֜א | malkā} precedes the indirect-object phrase leDaniyyel {לְדָנִיֵּ֣אל | lə-ḏāniyyēl}, after which the Pael verb rabbi {רַבִּ֗י | rabbî} ‘he made great’ functions as the first main predicate, presenting public elevation. A second predicate follows with yehav-leh {יְהַב־לֵ֔הּ | yəhav-lēh} ‘he gave to him’, whose object is expanded by umatnan {וּמַתְּנָ֨ן | û-mattənān} ‘and gifts’ and intensified through the stacked adjectives rabrevan {רַבְרְבָ֤ן | rabrəvān} ‘great’ and saggian {שַׂגִּיאָן֙ | śaggiʾān} ‘many’, emphasizing both value and quantity. The final promotion is expressed with the causative ve-hashletheh {וְהַ֨שְׁלְטֵ֔הּ | wə-hašləṭēh} ‘and he caused him to rule’, which governs two parallel prepositional complements introduced by ʿal {עַ֖ל | ʿal} ‘over’: kol-medinat {כָּל־מְדִינַ֣ת | kol məḏînaṯ} ‘all the province of’ Babylon, and then Daniel’s supervisory authority as ve-rav-signin {וְרַב־סִגְנִ֔ין | wə-raḇ-signîn} ‘chief of the officials’ over kol-chakimei {כָּל־חַכִּימֵ֥י | kol ḥakkîmê} ‘all the wise men of’ Babylon. English represents the Aramaic sequence of coordinated predicates with a smooth series of finite verbs while retaining the repeated “over all” to preserve the verse’s totalizing scope. |