The Book of Daniel
Daniel 3
Chapter III · Vol. III, pp. 1387–1388
1 Nebuchadnezzar dedicateth a golden image in Dura. 8 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego are accused for not worshipping the image. 13 They, being threatened, make a good confession. 19 God delivereth them out of the furnace. 26 Nebuchadnezzar seeing the miracle blesseth God.
1 Nebuchadnezzar the king amade an image1 of gold, whose height was threescore cubits[≈ 27 m · 90 ft],2 and the breadth thereof six cubits[≈ 2.7 m · 9 ft]: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
B.C. cir. 587 or 570.
a 2 Ki.19.17,18. Je.16.20. Ac.19.26. Ho.2.8; 8.4. Ex.32.2-4. 1 Ki.12.28. De.7.25. Ju.8.26,27. Ps.115.4-8. Is.46.6; 40.19. Je.10.9. ch.2.31.
1 An image. Diodorus relates that Xerxes took a statue of gold 40 feet in height out of the temple of Belus when he destroyed it, which may have been the image here mentioned. The height of 60 cubits (say 90 feet) is not to be assigned to the body of the image, but to the image and the pedestal or column upon which it stood.—C.
2 It was about 90 feet high and 9 broad if the measure be Chaldean; and about 111 feet high and 11 feet broad if the measure be Jewish.
2 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent bto gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs,3 and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.4
b 1 Ki.12.32. Pr.29.12. Re.17.2.
3 It is impossible to find offices in any modern European state exactly answering to the original words; but the variety serves to show that 'division of labour' which marks a well-organized government.—C.
4 The object of the king in setting up this image was most probably political. It was to test in a rude and idolatrous manner the sincerity of the honours ascribed to him by his subjects. It was not unusual for monarchs in ancient times to claim divine honours, and perhaps the image set up was a representation of the king. At any rate, it was the king's command which was the sole authority for worshipping it. Refusal might, therefore, be interpreted as despising the royal command. The statue was in all probability only covered with thin gold plates.—P.
3 Then cthe princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
c Ac.19.34. Mat.7.13. Ro.3.11,12. Pr.29.12.
4 Then an herald cried aloud,5 To you it is commanded,6 Od people, nations, and languages,
5 Chald. with might, ch.4.14. Pr.9.13,15.
6 Chald. they command, Re.13.16.
5 That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, 7dulcimer, and all kinds of music,8 ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:
7 Or, singing. Chald. symphony.
8 The distinctive forms of these several instruments cannot now be ascertained, but it is evident they comprised the three great classes—wind, stringed, and pulsative.—C.
6 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, eshall the same hour9 be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
* It is remarkable that this is the first time that an 'hour' is mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. And it is worthy of notice, that Herodotus says the Greeks received the duodecimal division of the day from the Babylonians, whose astrological studies emerging, as afterwards in Europe, into the genuine and more dignified science of astronomy, would naturally lead them to a division, the variety of whose roots would facilitate their necessary calculations;—or the natural division of the year into months, and of the heavens into twelve corresponding signs, may have conducted to an analogous division of the day by twelve hours.—C.
9 See note * in first column.
e Mar.6.27. Re.13.15, with Je.29.22. Is.59.7. Ro.3.15,16.
7 Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music, gall the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
10 Thou,j O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image:
11 And kwhoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
k ver.6; ch.6.12. Jn.19.7.
12 There are certain Jews,1 whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee;2 they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
13 Then Nebuchadnezzar, lin his rage and fury, commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. nThen they brought these men before the king.
14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true,3 O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve omy gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
15 Now, if ye be ready, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye pfall down and worship the image which I have made, qwell: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace: and rwho is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not 4careful5 to answer thee in this matter.
17 If it be so, our God, swhom we serve, is ablet to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and uhe will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.6
u Mi.7.7. 2 Co.1.10. 1 Sa.17.37. 2 Ti.4.18. Job 5.19.
6 What faith was here! A faith not merely speculative and theoretical, holding clear and orthodox views regarding God and his providential power; but faith practical, ready to act in accordance with theory. Danger could not shake it; death could not make it waver. Faith in God enabled those devoted men to look beyond death. Mortal life might be terminated by violence, but life eternal lay beyond. What a lesson does this teach the Christian!—P.
18 But if not, vbe it known unto thee, O king, that we will not xserve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full7 of yfury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: ztherefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
20 And he commanded the 8most mighty men9 that were in his army to abind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
21 Then these men were bound in their coats,1 their hosen,2 and their hats,3 and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
A.M. cir. 3417 or 3434. B.C. cir. 587 or 570.
1 Or, mantles.
2 Hosen. The sarbal is supposed by Gesenius to signify the trowsers or wide drawers still worn by the Persians; in corroboration of which he traces the word with the dress in the Greek, Latin, Spanish, Hungarian, Sclavonian, and Polish languages.—C.
3 Or, turbans.
22 Therefore because the king's commandment4 was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the 5flame6 of the fire bslew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
4 Chald. word.
5 Or, spark.
6 It is not likely that the officers would approach the visible flame so as to be destroyed; but the probability is, that in order to excite the fire, some sulphurous or nitrous mixture may have been cast into the furnace, and that the invisible gases thus produced proved instantly destructive to life, and rendered the miraculous preservation of the three noble confessors still the more conspicuous.—C.
b ch.6.24. Pr.21.18.
23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, cfell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king dwas astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors,7 Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
d ch.5.6; 6.26,27.
7 Or, governors.
25 He answered and said, Lo, I see8 four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt;9 and the form of the fourth is like ethe Son1 of God.2
* The Son of God. How could the idolatrous king have this knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Some, in reply, translate the phrase, 'a son of God,' or 'of the God.' But may not Nebuchadnezzar have heard of the Son of God from the Hebrew Psalms, or from Daniel their interpreter? and, as a monarch who constitutes a very centre of prophetical vision, may he not have been supernaturally compelled to bear this official testimony now to the personal glory of the Son, as Caiaphas was afterwards to his humiliation and atonement? Ps. 2. 7. Jn. 11. 50, 51. Nor is this view weakened by the king calling the Son of God, God's 'angel,' ver. 28, inasmuch as that title was, and is, not a name of Christ's nature, but a name of his office—the angel, the messenger, of the covenant.—C.
8 If the three confessors were thrown into a reverberatory furnace, how could the king see them walking? Let the abundance of Babylonian bitumen—a most combustible material—be recollected; let the furnace be a wide pit sunk in the earth, or an extended iron grating a little above it; let the king occupy an elevated throne, and all the difficulty is solved.—C.
9 Chald. there is no hurt in them, Ps.91.3-9. Is.43.2. He.11.27. 1 Pe.3.13.
1 Or, to a son, Job 1.6; 38.7. Ps.34.7. He.1.14. ver.28.
2 See note * in first column.
26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth3 of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye fservants of the gmost high God, hcome forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.
27 And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, iupon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, jBlessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent khis angel, and delivered his servants lthat trusted in him, and nhave changed4 the king's word, and oyielded their bodies, that pthey might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.
29 Therefore I make a decree,5 That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss6 against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be qcut in 7pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because rthere is no other god that can deliver after this sort.
5 Chald. a decree is made by me, ch.6.26,27. Ezr.6.8-12; 7.13-26.
6 Chald. error.
q See ch.2.5.
7 Chald. made pieces.
Notes
Reflections.—At what expense will proud men dare to affront Jehovah, and mark their gratitude to an idol which never showed them a favour! Sinners readily comply with the most wicked commands of terrible tyrants: and few can at once withstand the charms of music and the terrors of a fiery furnace. Everywhere there are villains ready to accuse the faithful servants of God. But it is honourable to the cause of God when, in the way of duty, we avoid all parleying with temptation, and drop all care about the consequences; when faith in God casts out slavish fears; and when self-denial prepares for the severest conflicts. How terrible and violent the passions of proud men become when they are indulged! they bid defiance to everything human! and it is dangerous to be the instruments of persecution and cruelty to tyrannical princes; but always safe and honourable to suffer for Jesus Christ. He will walk with his people in that fiery furnace, and they shall reign with him on his throne. God can easily convince the proudest, that wherein they deal proudly he is above them; and can extort confessions of his Godhead from such as had been just ready to curse him to his face. But he greatly honours those who obey, and seek praise of him rather than of men: and it is a mercy to his church to have the mouths of her enemies stopped, even when their hearts are not turned to God. And princes should prudently prefer those to places of power and trust whom they have found faithful to God.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.