Daniel 3:3

Some of the titles of the officials named in the text are Persian and some are Babylonian. Daniel may have updated some of these Babylonian titles with modern Persian equivalents when he wrote the book in its final form. Or perhaps they were already common when the events of this chapter happened.

The "satraps" were the highest political officials in each province. The "prefects" (princes) were military chiefs. The "governors" (captains) were heads of sections of the provinces. The "counselors" (advisers, judges) were high-ranking judges. The "treasurers" were superintendents of the treasury. The "judges" (counselors) were secondary judges, and the "magistrates" (sheriffs) were lower level legal officials. The "rulers" (officials) were subordinates of the satraps. [Note: Ibid., pp. 120-21.] These groups represented all the administrative government officials of the wide-ranging empire, and they spoke many different languages (Daniel 3:7).