Biblical Aramaic · Biblical Aramaic Readers
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE FIRST
Pedagogical transliterationmalka le-almin ḥeyi; emar ḥelma le-avdakh u-fishra neḥavve
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT
Daniel 2:4 begins in Biblical Hebrew: וַיְדַבְּרוּ הַכַּשְׂדִּים לַמֶּלֶךְ אֲרָמִית. The Aramaic itself begins mid-verse with מַלְכָּא. This reader therefore starts at that exact word and continues through verse 7. It does not Aramaicize the Hebrew introduction. Mark the imperatives in verse 4, the conditional clauses in verses 5–6, and the repeated speech formula in verse 7.
SEE HOW IT WORKS
BA-R01
Pedagogical reading guide
Biblical Aramaic
2:4b address + request · 2:5 royal answer and threat · 2:6 reward and renewed command · 2:7 repeated request
EXAMPLES
Close translation — 2:4b: ‘O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servant, and we will declare the interpretation.’ 2:5: ‘The king answered and said to the Chaldeans: The matter/decree from me is firm; if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be made into pieces and your houses shall be made refuse heaps.’ 2:6: ‘But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive gifts, reward, and great honor from me; therefore declare the dream and its interpretation to me.’ 2:7: ‘They answered a second time and said: Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare its interpretation.’
SOURCE REFERENCE
APPROVED STUDY LAYERS
Read the exact transition into Biblical Aramaic, track speaker changes, and parse the repeated dream/interpretation vocabulary.
MAM provides the exact pointed reading; OSHB independently tokenizes the Hebrew opening and tags the Aramaic words from מַלְכָּא onward.
Biblical Aramaic of Daniel and Ezra. Later Targumic, Jewish Babylonian, and Zoharic forms are not imported into this lesson.
Locate the exact language boundary. Identify the two imperatives in 2:4b, the two alternatives introduced in 2:5–6, and the repeated request in 2:7.
The Hebrew ends with אֲרָמִית; Aramaic begins מַלְכָּא. Imperatives: חֱיִי and אֱמַר. The negative condition is הֵן לָא תְהוֹדְעוּנַּנִי; the positive alternative is וְהֵן חֶלְמָא וּפִשְׁרֵהּ תְהַחֲוֹן. Verse 7 repeats חֶלְמָא יֵאמַר ... וּפִשְׁרָה נְהַחֲוֵה.
MAM displays the qere לְעַבְדָךְ in 2:4 and preserves the ketiv in its apparatus; OSHB likewise records both. In 2:5 MAM reads מִלְּתָה, while OSHB/WLC reads מִלְּתָא. The translation ‘matter/decree ... is firm’ is chosen for the lesson; the debated alternative ‘the word has gone from me’ should remain visible in advanced notes.
REMEMBER