DANIEL's THREE COMPANIONS RESCUED FROM THE FURNACE Nebuchadnezzar erects in the plain of Dura, near Babylon, a colossal golden image, and assembles for its dedication the high officials of his kingdom, all being commanded, under penalty of being cast into a burning fiery furnace, to fall down at a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nebuchadnezzar_ Sept., Theod., Pesh. prefix -In the eighteenth year," which would be the year before Jerusalem was finally taken by the Chaldaeans (2 Kings 25:8). Sept. also has an addition stating the occasion on which the image was erected: it was while he was -organizing (διοικῶν) cities and cou... [ Continue Reading ]
Nebuchadnezzar's proclamation regarding the image.... [ Continue Reading ]
_princes_ SATRAPS, Aram. _"achashdarpan_, both this and the Gk. ἐξατράπης, σατράπης, being corruptions of the Old Persian _kshatra-pâwan_, lit. -protector of the realm," but denoting by usage (cf. on Daniel 6:1) the chief ruler of a province. The term, as is well known, is a standing Persian one: in... [ Continue Reading ]
The names of officials are the same as in Daniel 3:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE _herald cried aloud_ lit. _with might_: Song of Solomon 4:14; Song of Solomon 5:7; and in Heb. (though the substantive is a different one) Jonah 3:8. _peoples, nations, and languages_ the same pleonastic combination, Daniel 3:7_; Daniel 3:29_, Daniel 4:1; Daniel 5:19; Dani... [ Continue Reading ]
_cornet_ lit. _horn_: so Daniel 3:7_; Daniel 3:10; Daniel 3:15_; elsewhere in this sense only in the -ram's _horn_," Joshua 6:5. The usual Hebrew name for this (or some similar) instrument is _shôphâr_. The word used here (_karnâ_) is, however, common in the same sense in Syriac. _flute_ PIPE, Aram.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the same hour_ Cf. Daniel 3:15; Daniel 4:33; Daniel 5:5 (also -hour" alone, Daniel 4:16). The expression is common in Syriac, as in the Pesh. of Matthew 8:3; Matthew 27:48; Mark 1:42; Acts 11:11; Acts 11:16; comp. (in the Greek)... [ Continue Reading ]
_sackbut_ TRIGON.... [ Continue Reading ]
_certain Chaldeans_ probably, though not here necessarily, the learned class among the Babylonians (as Daniel 1:4; Daniel 2:2 &c.). See p. 12 ff. _accused_ The figure in the original is a peculiar one, lit. - _ate the_(_torn) pieces of_the Jews." The expression has commonly in Aramaic the sense of _... [ Continue Reading ]
The accusation brought against the three Jewish youths, and their answer to the king.... [ Continue Reading ]
_spake_ ANSWERED (R.V.): see on Daniel 2:20. _the king Nebuchadnezzar_ NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE KING, the regular order in Aramaic (Daniel 3:1_; Daniel 3:5; Daniel 3:7_&c.), and often in late Hebrew (as Haggai 1:1; Haggai 1:15; Nehemiah 2:1; Nehemiah 5:14). In early Hebrew the order is almost uniformly -t... [ Continue Reading ]
_sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer_ TRIGON, _psaltery, and_ BAGPIPE.... [ Continue Reading ]
_whom thou hast set_, &c. See Daniel 2:49. The -Chaldeans" were, no doubt, jealous of the Jewish captives being promoted to high positions; and accordingly took advantage of their refusal to conform to Nebuchadnezzar's edict, in order to represent them as ungrateful and disloyal to their royal maste... [ Continue Reading ]
Is it _true_ Probably this is right (cf. Theod. εἰ ἀληθῶς; Pesh. _in truth_), though it requires a slight change in the text (האזדא [see Daniel 2:5; Daniel 2:8] for הצדא). R.V. (with Ges.) _of purpose_(Hitz., Keil, _of malicious purpose_): upon this view the word would be a Hebraism [227], from the... [ Continue Reading ]
_sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer_ TRIGON, _psaltery, and_ BAGPIPE. well] an aposiopesis, as e.g. Genesis 30:27; Exodus 32:32; Luke 13:9; _Il_. i. 135 f. (von Lengerke). _who is_ THE _God_ The sense is not appreciably affected; but -that" is not philologically correct (comp. on Daniel 2:38). The qu... [ Continue Reading ]
are _not careful_ HAVE NO NEED (R.V.).... [ Continue Reading ]
_If it be_so, &c. IF OUR GOD _whom we serve is able to deliver us_, HE WILL DELIVER _us from the burning fiery furnace_, AND OUT OF _thine hand, O king_, i.e. we shall be harmed neither by the fire, nor by any other punishment which the king may decree.... [ Continue Reading ]
But even if He cannot, or will not, do this, still we can never fall down and worship thy gods. The three men shew the same courage, the same unflinching determination not to compromise their faith, which were shewn by the loyal Jews in the age of the Maccabees (1Ma 1:62-63; 2Ma 6:18 ff., 2Ma 6:7 &c... [ Continue Reading ]
_full of_ FILLED (A.V. _marg._) WITH would be both more accurate and more forcible. _than it_was _wont_, &c. _than it was_ PROPER or, THE RULE [229] _for it to be heated_. [229] See in Onkelos Leviticus 5:10; Leviticus 9:16; Numbers 29:6; Numbers 29:21 (for Heb. כמשׁפט); and the Targ. of Jeremiah... [ Continue Reading ]
The three youths delivered from the flames.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the most_ CERTAIN (lit. _men_: cf. in Heb. Deuteronomy 13:13 (14); Judges 19:22; 1 Kings 11:17).... [ Continue Reading ]
_coats_ The meaning of the Aram. _sarbâl_(only here and Daniel 3:27) is uncertain (see the very full discussion in Ges. _Thesaurus_); but on the whole MANTLES is the most probable. This is the sense which the word has in the Talmud [230], in which it occurs frequently (Ges. p. 971; Levy, _NHWB_[231]... [ Continue Reading ]
_urgent_ rather, SHARP (Daniel 2:15).... [ Continue Reading ]
_was astonied_ -astonied" is the old, and more correct, form of _astonished_(Old Eng. _astony, astonie_, from Old Fr. _estonner_, Lat. * _extonare_). Here, however, the meaning is rather, WAS ALARMED, the Aram. _těwah_being used in the Targums for Heb. words signifying _to fear_, as Genesis 27:33; 1... [ Continue Reading ]
_loose_ the fire had burnt away the fetters, but left the bodies of the three youths untouched. _form_ ASPECT, APPEARANCE, as Daniel 2:31. is _like the Son of God is like_ A SON _of_(the) GODS, i.e. a heavenly being or angel: cf. the -sons of God" (or, of the gods) in Genesis 6:2; Job 1:6 (where s... [ Continue Reading ]
_mouth_ Aram. _door_. GOD MOST HIGH] so Daniel 4:2; Daniel 5:18; Daniel 5:21: without -God," Daniel 4:17; Daniel 4:24-25; Daniel 4:32; Daniel 4:34; Daniel 7:25 (first time); and with the adj. in a more Hebraistic form, Daniel [ Continue Reading ]
_princes, governors, and captains_ SATRAPS, PRAEFECTS, _and_ GOVERNORS. See on Daniel 3:2. _counsellers_ MINISTERS (Daniel 3:24). _upon whose bodies_, &c. THAT _the fire had no power_ UPON THEIR BODIES, _nor was_ THE _hair_, &c. _coats_ either MANTLES, or TROUSERS (Daniel 3:21). _changed_ viz. f... [ Continue Reading ]
_spake_ ANSWERED. _Blessed_, &c. cf. the confessions in 1 Kings 10:9; 2 Chronicles 2:12. _sent his angel_ cf. Genesis 24:7; Genesis 24:40; Exodus 33:2; Numbers 20:16. _changed_ i.e. frustrated: cf. Ezra 6:11-12 (-alter"); and Psalms 89:39 in the Targ., - [ Continue Reading ]
Nebuchadnezzar's doxology, and edict of toleration.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I make a decree_ the same phrase (lit. _a decree is made by me_), in Daniel 4:6 (cf. Daniel 6:26); Ezra 4:11 (at the end), 19, Daniel 5:17; Daniel 6:8; Daniel 6:11; Daniel 7:13; Daniel 7:21. _people, nation, and language_ Daniel 3:4;... [ Continue Reading ]
_promoted_ MADE TO PROSPER (cf. Daniel 6:28), i.e. supported them in different ways in the discharge of their office, and so ensured their success (Daniel 2:49).... [ Continue Reading ]