The king commanded this image to be set up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. (1) The troubling dream. “Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width … Daniel chapter 3 is a well known and well loved chapter in the Bible. Visit our library of inductive Bible studies for more in depth inductive studies on this and other books of … It contains things we all like in a story... 90 foot idols, furious kings, fiery furnaces hot enough to kill people who are just passing by... That sort of thing. From the spoils which he had taken in that expedition in Syria and Palestine, he had the means in abundance of rearing such a colossal statue; and at the close of these conquests, nothing would be more natural than that he should wish to rear in his capital some splendid work of art that would signalize his reign, record the memory of his conquests, and add to the magnificence of the city. (Note: "On seeing this mound," Oppert remarks (l. c. p. 239), "one is immediately struck with the resemblance which it presents to the pedestal of a colossal statue, as, for example, that of Bavaria near Mnich, and everything leads to the belief that the statue mentioned in the book of Daniel (Daniel 3:1) was set up in this place. Hesitation, or parleying with sin, is fatal; unhesitating decision is the only safety, where the path of duty is clear ( Matthew 10:19 Matthew 10:28 ). It seeks a reconciliation of both oppressor and oppressed, through which the world is reoriented to God. ), "measured from the breast to the back is one-tenth of his height." According to the common view (cf. It is not in the Chaldee. 3. It is not necessary to suppose that it was of solid gold, for the amount required for such a structure would have been immense, and probably beyond the means even of Nebuchadnezzar. The word which is here rendered "breadth" (פתי pethay) occurs nowhere else in the Chaldean of the Scriptures, except in Ezra 6:3 : "Let the house be builded, the height thereof threescore cubits, and the "breadth" thereof threescore cubits." Really it was the "messenger of the covenant," who herein gave a prelude to His incarnation. In the height of threescore cubits the pedestal of the image may be regarded as included, so that the whole image according to its principal component part (a potiori) was designated as צלם; although the passage Judges 18:30-31, adduced by Kran., where mention is made of the image alone which was erected by Micah, without any notice being taken of the pedestal belonging to it (cf. ... (3:91; for comments on the rest of the text of the Septuagint, see the commentary for verses 24 through 30 of the Aramaic text.) The Men who were Loyal to God. 4. So the satraps, the administrato… This vision, found in Chapters 11 and 12, will cover the history of the Jews from Daniel’s day down until the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. v1 I, King Nebuchadnezzar, send this message to everyone in the world. hats--HERODOTUS [1.195] says that the Babylonian costume consisted of three parts: (1) wide, long pantaloons; (2) a woollen shirt; (3) an outer mantle with a girdle round it. Likewise that he might seem no ways to be inclined to the Jews, or their religion, whereof the Chaldeans might be jealous, seeing he had owned their God to be greatest, and had preferred Daniel and his friends to great honours. Still less can we, with Zndel (p. 13), explain the absence of Daniel on this occasion as arising from the political import of the statue, because the supposition of Daniel's not having been called to be present is a mere conjecture, and a very improbable conjecture; and the supposition that Daniel, as being chief of the Magi, would not be numbered among the secular officers of state, is decidedly erroneous. It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. c. 26. In the Greek and Arabic translationns, this is said to have occurred in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. We must, without doubt, much rather seek for this plain in the neighbourhood of Babylon, where, according to the statement of Jul. The colossal size makes it likely that the frame was wood, overlaid with gold. But even this place lay quite too far from the capital of the kingdom to be the place intended. The interval between the dream and the event here was about nineteen years. From a statue in a horrifying dream, we move to a statue of the king's own making (3:1), which he commands everyone to worship (3:3-6). It provides a model response to violent oppression: the stubborn refusal to be afraid. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. There is a similar progression in the conduct of God's people. None of the Jews seem to have been present, except the officers, summoned specially. He set it up on u the plain of Dura, in v the province of Babylon. v. 48; Ammian. Chapter 10 is a prelude to the final vision in the book of Daniel. See the statues of the two celebrated colossal figures of Amunoph III standing in the plains of Goorneh, Thebes, one of which is known as the Vocal Memnon. In the Talmud (d) it is said, "from the river Eshal unto Rabbath is the valley of Dura;'', in Arabic, "dauro" signifies "round"; it was a round valley. This chapter reports an incident about Daniel's three buddies. nor worship--by prostration of the body. (a) Under pretence of religion, and holiness in making an image to his idol Bel, he sought his own ambition and vain glory: and this declares that he was not touched with the true fear of God before, but that he confessed him on a sudden motion, as the wicked when they are overcome with the greatness of his works. like the Son of God--Unconsciously, like Saul, Caiaphas ( John 11:49-52 ), and Pilate, he is made to utter divine truths. Nebuchadnezzar goes public with Daniel's image (Daniel 3:1-7) 1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Daniel 3:1 That is, about 90 feet high and 9 feet wide or about 27 meters high and 2.7 meters wide; Daniel 3:8 Or Chaldeans; Daniel 3:17 Or If the God we serve is able to deliver us, then he will deliver us from the blazing furnace and Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream of a Tree - King Nebuchadnezzar, To the nations and peoples of every language, who live in all the earth: May you prosper greatly! Marcel. It is not very probable that the image which Xerxes removed was the same which Nebuchadnezzar reared in the plain of Dura - compare the Introduction to this chapter, Section I. VII. Whatever the king approved of, they all approve of. Recent discoveries place it nearer to Babylon, in a place still called by a similar name. PRIDEAUX thinks the sixty cubits refer to the image and pedestal together, the image being twenty-seven cubits high, or forty feet, the pedestal thirty-three cubits, or fifty feet. Daniel 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Why Daniel was not summoned does not appear. previous. He set it up on u the plain of Dura, in v the province of Babylon. Footnotes. sheriffs--men learned in the law, like the Arab mufti [GESENIUS]. iii. The translated Bible text has been through Advanced Checking.. But if not, &c.--connected with Daniel 3:18 . This daring sin of Nebuchadnezzar was aggravated many ways, by the greatness of the kingdom and majesty God had given him, by the late discovery made to him when Daniel interpreted his dream, by his conviction and confession upon it of that great God and his sovereign power: this is the height of ingratitude, arguing his carriage before to be only a fit of astonishment, without the least change upon his heart. God delivereth them unhurt out of it, which Nebuchadnezzar seeing blesseth God, and acknowledgeth his power, Daniel 3:24-29. This posed a serious threat to the Jews. For example, the book of Daniel comes from the era (165 B.C.) Marc. The measure, in height threescore cubits, in breadth six cubits, is easily explained, since in the human figure the length is to be breadth in the proportion of about six to one. 1. p. 671. slew those men--( Daniel 6:24 , Psalms 7:16 ). 9, the golden statue, forty feet high, placed in the temple of Belus consisted of 1000 talents of gold, which would have been not far from sufficient if these objects had been formed of solid gold. Nebuchadnezzar assured his wise men and nobles that he would still maintain the old established religion, without innovation or mixture: so Mald, Menochius, Geierus: that they had a spite against the Jews is clear, Daniel 3:8,12. whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits; a common cubit being half a yard, it was thirty yards high, and three yards broad; but Herodotus (y) says the king's cubit in Babylon was three fingers larger than the usual one; and, according to that, this image must be thirty five yards high, and three yards and a half broad; but since there is so great a disproportion between the height and breadth, some have thought that the height includes the pedestal on which it stood; and, allowing twelve cubits for that, the height of the image was forty six cubits. To download a pdf version (where the fonts come … (b) Geograph. Chaldee sumponya, the modern Italian zampogna, Asiatic zambonja. &c. Compare the Hebrew, Numbers 35:20 Numbers 35:22 . The Greek interpreters write that this was done eighteen years after the dream, and as may appear, the King feared lest the Jews by their religion should have altered the state of his commonwealth: therefore he meant to bring all to one type of religion, and so rather sought his own peace than God's glory. CHAPTER 3 Daniel 3:1-30. Daniel 2:31), and excludes the idea of a mere pillar or an obelisk, for which מצּבה would have been the appropriate word. It was not unusual to erect images in this manner, as the colossal figure at Rhodes shows. walking in . The "height," sixty cubits, is so out of proportion with the "breadth," exceeding it ten times, that it seems best to suppose the thickness from breast to back to be intended, which is exactly the right proportion of a well-formed man [AUGUSTINE, The City of God, 15.20]. Sic. xxiii. 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