that time certain Chaidjeans [tit. men Casdim] came near and accused the
Jews. They spake [vjere answering], and said [were saying] to the king

Nebuchadnezzar, O [lit. The] king, live for ever. Thou, 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; and whoso falleth not down and worshippeth



00 THE PROPHnr DANIEL.



12 that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are
certain Jews, whom thou hast set over the aifairs [work] of the province of
Babylon, Shadrach, Mesliaeh, and Abed-nego: these men, O king, have not
regarded thee [set account upon thee] ; they serve not thy gods, nor worship

13 the golden image which thou hast set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage
and fury, commanded [said] to bring [cause to come] Shadraeh, Meshach, and
Abed-nego. Then they brouglit these men [these men were brought] before

14 the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said unto them, Is it true [o/' purpose],
Shadraeh, Meshach, and Abed-nego ? do not ye [, ^^rt^yedo not] serve my

15 gods, nor worship the golden image wliich I have set up? Now, if ye be ready,
that at what time [the time that] ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and wor-
ship the image which I have made, loell ; but [and] if ye worship not, yc shall
be cast the same hour [moment] into the midst of a burning fiery furnace ; and

16 who is that [he] God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadraeh, Me-
shach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we are

17 not careful [needing] to answer thee [return thee answer] in this matter. Hit
be so, our God [If it be that our God] whom we serve, is able to deliver us
from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy

18 hand, O king.' But [And] if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that
we ivill not serve [are not serving] thy gods, nor worship tlie golden image

19 which thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and <Ae form of
his visage was changed against Shadraeh, Meshach, and Abed-nego: therefo^-e
he spake, and commanded that they should he.at [to heat] the furnace one seven
times more than it was wont to be heated \lit. above that any one was ever seen

20 to heat it]. And he commanded the most mighty men \lit. men, heroes of might]
that were in liis army to bind Shadraeh, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and [so as] to

21 cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their
coats [shirts, or trowsers, or mantles], their hosen [coats, or tunics], and their
hats [cloaks, or turbans,] and t\ie\v other garments, and were cast i«to the midst

22 of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because [lit. from that] the king's com-
mandment [word] VMS urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of tlie

23 fire slew those men that took u]) Shadraeh, Meshach, and Abed-nego.' And
these three men, Sliadrach, Mesliaeh, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the

24 midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished,
and rose iq^ i" baste, and spake and said unto his counsellors. Did not we cast
three men bound into the midst of the fire?' They answered and said unto the

25 king, True,' O king. He answered and said, Lo, I ' see four men loose [loosed],
walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt [harm is not with them];
and the form [appearance] of the fourth is like the Son of God [a son of the

26 gods]. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to <^e mouth [door] of the burning fierj
furnace, and S])ake, and said, Shadraeh, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants
of the most high God, come [go] forth, and come hither. Then Shadraeli.
Meshach, and Abed-nego, came [went] forth of [from] the midst of the fire.

27 And the princes, [the] governors, and [the] captains, and the king's counsellors,
being gatliered together, saw [or, were gathered and saw] these men, upon [over]
whose bodies the fire had no power [did not rule], nor was a [the~\ hair of their
head singed, neither were [had] their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had

28 passed on tliem. Tlien Nebuchadnezzar spake and said. Blessed he the God of
Shadraeh, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his
servants that trusted in him, and have changed' the king's word, and yielded
their bodies, tliat they might not serve or worship any god except their oivn

29 God. Therefore I inake a decree [And fiom me is a decree made]. That
every people, nation, and language, which [shall] speak anything amiss '° against
the God of Shadraeh, JMesliach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut [made] in pieces,
and their h(mses " shall he made a dunghill [or, sink] ; because there is no other

80 god that can deliver after [like] this sort. Then the king promoted Shadraeh,
Meshach, and Abed-nego, in the province of Babylon.



CHAP. III. 1-30.



di



CRITICAL NOTES.

1 [These are apparently t<^hnical tenna for various classes of officers, who are carefully distinguiahed and graded, and
may be represented as follows :

i Satraps, | I Provinces.

I. -^ PmfeLt^, J- Governmental, ■< DLstricts.

J ( Metropolis.



II.



I.



") Treasurers,
\ Judges^



Courtly,



i Executive.
"if Financial.
-,_ J Judges^ (. r I J ^^ ^^^ bench.

^^^* 1 Lawyers. \ ^^'' "} At the bar,

IV. — Superintendenfs. — Functional — General.]
^ [There is in these three terms likewise cleiu*ly a gradation downwards: ncUion$^ tribes^ dialects.]
* [In these names of musical instruments, some borrowed from foreign languages, and all more or less uncertain
of import, there are nevertheless traces of classincation :
I Cornet, [ ^[r- , \ Simple.
\ Flute. r^""^ 1 Keyed.



[wind,

[ Guitar., J [

II. \ Lyre, > String, \ Gradually more complex

I Unrv- S I



III. — Bagpipe. — Wind — Compound.
IV — Ail aori*.— General,]

* \.'"^ linl^'p ibDS, lit., ate their pieces of. I.e., slandered; cent. English "backbite."]

* [The iIa.soretic interpunction requires us to punctuate thus: to deliver us ; from the burning fiery furnace and
from thy Itand, O king, lie will deliver.]

* [The pcsition of the terra for the executioners is verj' emphatic in the original ; literally, those men^ who lifted

t/i£ Jiame of the fire i-itleit them.]

* [The order of the words in the original is emphatic ; " Waa it not three men ice caM into [to] the midst of the fire-
bound f" This last was an additional circumstance of wonder. — ' 5<2'^2'^ may be the fem. or the "deflnit* state;"
in eithercase it is emphatic, i. q., *' the truth." — s The pronoun, being expressed, is emphatic, i". 7., " I myself." The
others appear to have been so situated as not to observe this fact, or did not Dot.:ce it. — « TT,lij being in Pael, so far aa
the form is concerned, is smiply transitive; but the context gives it the sense of contravene, common in the cognate
Syriac— '» nb'i'i Keri li™i something astray, an error or wrong word, *. e., detraction.— " nrPa> his iMUse, i. e.,
the house of any individual so doing.]



EXEGETICAL RESIARKS.

Verses 1, 3. Thu- erection of the image, and the
command to fittend itK dediciition. Nebuchad-
nezzar the king made (had made) an image of
gold. Properly "made" ("27), similar to the
repeated phrase in the following : " he set it up,"
in.stead of '' he caused it to be set up " (verses 1 A,
2, 'A, .'). 7, 12, etc.), or to ver.se 34, " we cast three
men into the fite,'" instead of " had them cast in."
— The Hob. text does not state token the image
was made. According to the Septuagiut and
Theodotion, who are followed by the Syriac hex-
aplar version, it was prepared crni% uKvuKunSiKanw
Haiai'x iiWvoCT'y/i, heuce at about the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem (cf. 3 Kings xxv. 8 ;
Jer. lii. 12), and after the accomplished subjec-
tion to ChaldEea of all the nations from India to
Ethiopia (cf. the additions in the Sept. to verses
2 "nd 'S). The incident appears at all events to
belong to this later period of Nebuchadnezzar's
reign, since verses 4 4, 7 6, 29 a, mention mivny
" people.s, nation.s, and languages," a.s being sub-
ject to him, and it was possibly a feature con-
nected with a feast in commemoration of his
victories (cf. Herodot. IV. 88). The impression
of Jehovah's power and greatness which he had
formerly received in consequence of Daniel's
interpretation of his dream, appears therefore to
have been long obliterated. He not only causes
the colossal image subsequently described to be
erected in honor of some Babylonian national
god, but with arrogant presumption he chal-
lenges a conflict (see verse l.")). — An image of gold.
C,"i certainly designates in this place, as well
as in chap. ii. iM. a statue in the human form,
and more particularly, the image of a god, as
appears from verses 13, 18, 38. It was not there-



fore a statue of Nebuchadnezzar himself. A
marked disproportion seems to have existed in
its dimensions, on the supposition that it repre-
sented an upright human form, since its height
is given at sixty cubits, and its breadth or
thickness at only six cubits, while the normal
height and breadth of a person in an upright
posture are as 6 : 1, not as 10 : 1. For this
reason the cb^ has been held to have been in
part a mere idol column, similar to the Egyptian
obelisks, or, which is certainly more appropriate,
analogous to the Amyclaean Apollo, which formed,
according to Pausanius ( Lacon. III. 19, 2), a slen-
der column provided with head, arms, and feet,
in the human form. So M^nter, lidiy. (ler Baby-
loiiier, p. .59 ; Hengstcnberg, p. 95 ; and more re-
cently Kranichfeld, who refers to the colossus of
Rhodes, the height of which was seventy cubits,
also to the Egj-ptian ko'/ /.uooin /At}c.?.ot and lii'ii^d-
ooi;>ff mentioned by Herodotus (II. 175), and to
the image of the sun mentioned by Pliny (//. iV".
xxiv. 18), which reached a height of 110 feet,
in addition to the Apollo of Amyclje. ["c'?2
is properly an image in human likenesn, and ex-
cludes the idea of a mere pillar or obelisk, for
which n25:?3 would have been the appropriate
word. Yet ... . as to the upper part — the
head, countenance, arms, breast — it may have
been in the form of a man. and the lower part
may have been formed like a pill.ir." — Keil.]
We might be content with this, or refer in ad-
dition to the remarkably tall and slender forms
of individual persons on Egyptian wall-painting»
and also on Assyrian and Babylonian sculptures
(cf. the copies in Wilkinson's Manners and cus-
tam.i of the ancient Egi/ptians. and Layard's workt
on Nineveh and Babylon [German by Th.Zenkerl
— in the latter, e.g. , the co ossal sitting tigure on



y2



THE PROPHET DANIEL.



plate XXII. A), if it were not still more suitable to
regard the statement of the height of sixty cubits
as asjTiecdoche, designating both the image and
its pedestal, and to allow to the latter perhaps
twenty-four, and to the former thirty-six cubits,
which assumption clearly results in an entirely
well-proportioned shape of the statue. If there-
fore, the sis proper was Umited to a height of
about thirty-six feet, it would compare with
the statue of Belus, which, according to Diodor.
II. 9, was erected by Semiramis on the summit
of the great temple of Bel at Babylon (probably
the present "Birs Nimroud "), and attained a
height of forty feet ; but it can hardly be directly
identified (with Bertholdt) with that statue of
Bel,nor yet with the one mentioned by Herodotus
(I. 183), which measured twelve cubits in height.
Not only was it erected outside of the temple
area of Babylon, and possibly even at a consider-
able distance from the city itself (see infra), but
it is also extremely questionable whether an
image of Bel must be assumed in this case, since
the Babylonians were devoted to the zealous
worship of numerous gods. Entirely too artifi-
cial is the opinion of Hofmann ( Weiss, iind
ErfilUuiig. I. 277), Ziindel, and Kliefoth, that
the image was designed by Nebuchadnezzar to
represent the world-power he had founded, in
harmony with the religious (cosmical 1 conceptions
of heathenism — as indicated (according to Klie-
foth) particularly by the numbers six and sixty.
— The expression :n~~"il does not compel us to
assume that the image was composed through-
out of solid gold ; for in Ex. xxxvii. 35 et seq.
an altar of wood, and merely covered with
plates of gold, is designated simply as "nai^
Syjn ; and Isa, xl. 19 ; xli. 7 ; Jer. x. 3-5 in-
dicate plainly that the images of Babylonian idols
especially were usually compot:ed of wood with
an outside covering of gold. The construction
of this image by no means, therefore, involved
an immoderate expenditure, as J. D. MichaeUs
supposed ; and the gold required to cover its
surface may have been less, in weiglit and value,
than the amount required (80(1 talents) for the
construction of the statue of Bel already referred
to as mentioned by Herodotus, whose height was
twelve cubits, and for the tables and chairs
which accompanied it ; and also less than the
amount expended on the statue of Bel mentioned
by Diodorus, which reached a height of forty
cubits, and cost, as is reported, 1,000 talents.
The relative unimportance of this image, which
is thus so easy to conceive, deprives the argu-
mentum c.r silent io of all its force, as against
the credibility of the narrative, which Von Len-
gerke and Hitzig have assigned to it, on the
ground of its not being mentioned by profane
authors. Finally, it is thoroughly inconsequent
and ridiculous to discover, with Bleek (in Schlei-
erm., Liicke, etc. ; T/ied. Zeitschr., 1822, III.,
p. 209 ; ct. Eiid. im A. T., % 265), an imaginary
prototype of the liiU'/vyua ipj/uuneuc of Antiochus
Epiphanes, which was assigned by pseudo-Daniel
to the a;ra of the captivity ; for according to 1
Mace. i. 54, 59, this .Mf/ . was not a statue at all,
but an altar of small size, erected on the altar
of burnt offerings at Jerusalem (cf. Hcngsten-
berg. p. 80). — Whose height was threescore
cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits.



"'riB< properly " breadth," but here signifying
both breadth and thickness, cf. Ez. vi. 3. The
cubits (l"^S-) were probably the royal cubits of
the Babylonians (Herod. I. 178), and not smaller
than the ordinary cubits iGesen. , Tfieaaur., p.
112 s.). Instead of x^Xffwr e^r/xmra as a statement
of the height, the Septuagint has -f/xsui' c;, which
reading some have endeavored to defend, e. g.,
MichaeUs, Eichhom, etc. ; but is it probably not
even an ancient attempt to provide an ea.sier read-
ing, and must be considered merely as the error of
a copyist, if not as a tyjiographical error of the
Ed. princeps of Simon de Magistris ; see Bugati,
in Hiivemick on this passage. — He set it up
(caused it to be set up) in the plain of
Dura, in the province of Babylon. ^*"■p3)
like the corresponding Hebrew term, does not de-
signate a narrow valley enclosed by mountains,
but a low and level tract, a plain; hence a
majority of modems read "in the plain of Dura."
The location of this plain is not entirely certain ;
but it was probably east of the Tigris and
near Apollonia in the province of Sittacene,
where a town by the name of Dura was situated,
according to Polyb. v. 52, and Ammian, xxv.
6, 9. The Aovpa (otherivise Dor) near Caesarea
Falsest, on the Mediterranean, mentioned in
Polyb. V. 66, and the town of that name situated,
according to Polyb. v. 48 ; Ammian. xxiii. 5, 8,
near Circesium at the entrance of the Chaboras
into the Euphrates, which was l;oo far northward
to have been included in the province of Baby-
lon,* cannot possibly be intended here. ["We
must, without doubt, much rather seek for this
plain in the neighborhood of Babylon, where,
according to the statement of Jul. Oppert (Ex-
pedit. Scieritifique en Mimpoirimie. I. 238 ff.),
there are at present to be found in the S.S.E of
the ruins representing the former capital a row
of mounds which bear the name of Dura ; and
at the end of them, along -n-ith two larger
mounds, there is a smaller one named el-Mohattnt
(= la Celine obliguee), which forms a square six
metres high, with a basis of fourteen metres,
wholly built of unbumed biicks, and which shows
so surprising a resemblance to a colossal statue
with its pedestal, that Oppert believes this lit-
tle mound to be the remains of the golden image
erected by Nebuchadnezzar. " — 'Eeil.] The Sept.
which probably regarded the plain here referred
to as identical with the plain of Shinar. Gen. xi.
2, and which could find no town bearing the name
of Dura within its limits, has conceived the name
i<"l_'"'1 to be an appellative, and rendered it by
hi TTfriJu -at' Trepiiiu'/.m (cf -7,-r,, circiimire, in
orbem ire) ; in which, however, they were more
nearly correct than is Hitzig, who assumes that
his pseudo-Daniel adopted the name of fheplnin
from the earlier designation (chap. ii. 45) of the
mountain, s^ir- — Verse 2. Then Nebuchadnez-
■Lax the king sent to gather together, etc. This
ser\-ice was probably performed by couriers
(Ci2^)i '>^ho were doubtless employed in similar
duties at the Babylonian court, as well as at th«
Persian (Esth. x. 15 ; viii. 14). and even at thg
courts of Saul (1 Sam. xi. 7) and of Hezekiah
(3 Chron. xxx. 6, 10). — The princes, the gov-



• Cf. gcneraEy, Rawlinson, Journal o/ the B. Geogr. i
vtelu, \„ p. 'J3.



CHAP. III. 1-30.



9c



emors, and the captains. Among the seven
classes of officials enumerated, these three are
shown to have been more immediately related
to each other by the ^ before !*";ns. Their
members were executive officers of superior
rank, who combined both civil and military
functions in their range of duties, and who may
have been substantially on a par with the execu-
tive officials connected w^th the ministry of the
interior in a modern state, while the four suc-
ceeding classes were probably connected with the
departments of finance and justice. (1) The
V?S1~'.;."ns were naturally satraps (cf. ksJmtra-
pt'twuii on the cuneiform inscriptions at Behi-
tun, which, according to Haug [in Ewald's
Bibl. Jithrb., V. 153J is equivalent to "protec-
tor of the country," and according to Lassen
[Zeitschi: far Kunde des Murgenl., VI. 1, IS] is
synonymous with "guardian of the warriors of
the host;" cf. also the Zend shoithrapaiti and
the Sanscr. /cshiithrapn) — the superior executive
officers of the several provinces, vice or sub-
kings to the sovereign (cf. the Vr P*?! Isa. x. 8 ;
Gen. xiv. 1, 2, with the S';?^'? '^bs, Dan. ii.
37, Ezra vii. 12), and therefore mentioned at
the head of the body of officials. The fact that
the title of these chief administrators of pro-
vinces is Persian does not demonstrate that
their office was entirelj' confined to the time of
the Acha^menidian Persian empire, or that it
was even created by Darius Hystaspis (Herod.
III. yO s.s. ); for Xenophon {Cyrop. viii. 6, 1)
dates its existence back to the time of Cyrus,
and Berosus liu Josephus, c. Ajnoit, 1. 19 ; Ant.
X. 11. 1) designates Xecho already as a re-nyfiivog
cnrnd-i/r of Xabopolassar, which is hardly to be
considered a gi'oss anachronism, but rather as an
indication of the relation of Xecho as a vassal to
Babylon. Consequently, the author cannot be
charged with a historical error, either in this
connection, or in chap. vi. 2 et seq. , where he
refers to the satraps of Darius the Mede. The
•i";r-^-'Jns must be regarded rather, as one of
the Persian elements of the writer's Chaldee
idiom, the number of which, according to the
Introd. ^ 1, note 3, must have been considerable,
even at an early period (cf. on chap ii. 4); and
the early intrusion of such into the language and
range or conception among the Chaldasans, is no
more remarkable than is the mention of the
3""-"!, Jer. xxxix. 3, as a Chalda^an offi-
cer. The Septuagint, however, renders the
term by anv/wTai only here and in chap. vi. 2,
4, while in vs. 3 and 27 it has h~aroi, in Ezra
viii. 36 (hntK/irai^ in Esth. viii. 9 ntKm'6iwi^ and in
Esth. ix. 3 riiiuvmi. These variations indicate
that the conception of a definite office was no
longer connected with the title, at the time
when that version was made. — (2) According to
the observations on chap. ii. 48, the V:^9
were "superintendents, administrators " gener-
ally ; in this case naturally not endowed with
spiritual functions, but rather performing secu-
lar duties under the satraps, and finally em-
ployed chiefly in military rather than in civil
offices (cf. the S^:30 of Babylon, mentioned
together with the Bi-liSJ, Jer. Ii. 57). The



Septuagint appears to have conceived of these
Signin, in harmony with this view, as being
" prsefects of the host, or commanders of the
provinces;" for they render the term in this in-
stance by iyrpaT!i)nt (as in v. 3 and often, twelve
times in all), while they translate it elsewhere
by rnrraijxai (chap, iii 27), 'lynriiivot (chap. ii.
j 48), oriiMoiTff.— (3) S«r^^~5 (Heb. ninp, from
nriB). In view of the probably Indo-Germanio
derivation of this term (cf. Sanscr. paksha,
" side," Prakr. pakkha. modern Persian and
Turkish panha) it properly designates "those
who are stationed on the sides or flanks, adju-
tants," and then governors, or the representa-
tives of a sovereign in a designated field of ad-
ministration, provincial pra;fects. The gover-
nors whom Solomon placed over his pro\'incea
outside of Palestine, already bore this title (1
Kings X. 15 ; 2 Chron. ix. 14), also the governors
of the Syrian king Benhadad (1 Kings xx. 24) ;
the corresponding officers among the Syrians
(Isa. xxxvi. 9 ; 2 Kings xviii. 24), Chaldaj-ans
(Ezek. xxvi. 6, 23 ; Jer. Ii. 23) and Persians (Esth.
viii. 9 ; ix. 3 ) ; and especially the Persian gover-
nors of Judjea subsequent to the captivity (Hag.
i. 1, 14 ; ii. 2, 21 ; Neh. v. 14, 18, etc.) Among
the nations last mentioned, who employed
satraps as the chief priefects of provinces, the
nnp was merely a subordinate to those officers
(and more purely civil than military in his official
character, as appears from the position of Zerub-
babel and Nehemiah, according to Haggai and
Neh. 1. c. ) ; but in the kingdoms of Solomon
and Benhadad the Tinc seem to have been
equal in rank to the later satraps, and there-
fore were chief governors. In this place and v.
3 the Septuagint translates To-ap xai ; in v. 27,
aftxi^^n~f>i''>~<u {i.e., chief of a nationality). — (4)
According to the Sept. the '*'|'^!3"^^^< are "over-
seers" generally (Jn-nm/), while most modems
regard them as "chief judges or discerners."
Ewald defines them as " chief star-gazers, or au-
gurs of the first-class " (!), and Hitzig. as "direc-
tors, upon whom devolves the decision of matters,
or magistrates." The term, which occurs only in
this place, appears to be a genuine Aramaic
compound, from "l~Si glory, dignity, and "l!3t
to decide (cf. chap. ii. 27), and therefore proba-
bly designates a class of officers with whom
rested the final decision, particularly in regard
to the economical or financial administration of
the provinces [possibly = the modem Oriental
Tiziers], The class which follows next in order
obliges this restriction of the offices of the
H'-lTjI-ts. -_ (.5) X^'ISia, "the treasurers."
These officers do not probably differ from the
V"}?!3, Ezra vii. 21 (cf. i. 8), which term signi-
fies } aCnoi'/.a/v-ff, *''• managers of the public treas-
ury " (cf. Sept. ihniKr,Taij, and is possibly related
to the Pers. gaitha, modem Pers. genj, "treas-
ure " (cf. gma). Ewald's assertion that '^?~3
is synonymous with "l?!", vs. 24, 27, and sig-
nifies a " bearer of power,'' or " exalted prince
of the empire" (analogous to the old-Pers.
chudtdr, from chad., "God, authorization"), is

without adequate support. — (G) The K^'llCj''



94



THE PROPHET DANIEL.



are clearly the " learned in the law," or the
"guardians of the law."' The first element of
the word is evidently r~, "the law" (cf. Pers.
ddtii. from da, "to give"), to which the Pers.
ending vdr is annexed. Cf. the Pehlvi word
(Uitouber (Armen. dataior), "judges." — (7) The
immistakable connection of H"~^~ (like No. 4, i
a hapax leg.) with the Arab, ftah (cf. the Tur-
kish mufti, chief judge) marks this class of
officers as " dispensers of justice, lawyers, jud-
ges" in the strict sense (not "prsfecti" as the
Vulgate has it. or "oi f-' i^ovaion;" as it is ren-