Daniel 3:1

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 countries, and all the inhabitants of the earth, from India to Ethiopia." The addition is probably nothing but a Midrashic embellishment: we at least know nothing from any other source of Nebuchadnezzar's empire as extending to the limits named, or of his conducting military expeditions except in the direction of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt (exclusive of Ethiopia).

made an image of gold, &c. The expression does not mean necessarily that it was of solid gold; it might be used of an image that was merely (in the ancient fashion) overlaid with gold: the -altar of gold" of Exodus 39:38 was in reality only overlaid with gold (Exodus 30:3). It is not expressly stated what the image represented; it is not however described as the image of a god, so in all probability it represented Nebuchadnezzar himself. It was a common practice of the Assyrian kings to erect images of themselves with laudatory inscriptions in conquered cities, or provinces, as symbols of their dominion, the usual expression in such cases being ṣa-lam šarrû-ti-a(šur-ba-a) ipu-uš, "a (great) image of my royalty I made"; see KB[216] i. 69, l. 98 f.; 73, l. 5; 99, l. 25; 133, l. 31; 135, l. 71; 141, l. 93; 143, l. 124; 147, l. 156; 155, l. 26, &c. (all from the reigns of Asshur-naṣir-abal, b.c. 885 860, and Shalmaneṣer II., b.c. 860 825). Jastrow (Relig. of Bab. and Ass., 1898, p. 669) remarks that, inasmuch as in the inscriptions the victories of the armies were commonly ascribed to the help of the gods, a homage to some deity would be involved in the recital, though no instance is at present known of divine honours being paid to such statues.

[216] B.Eb. Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek(transliterations and translations of Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions), 1889 1900.

threescore cubits, &c. The image was thus some 90 feet high, and 9 broad. The disproportion of height and breadth in the human figure the proportion is commonly 5 6 to 1 has not been satisfactorily explained. The dimensions themselves, also, are greater than are probable: but the -India House Inscription," by its descriptions of the decorations of temples, testifies to the amount of gold that was at Nebuchadnezzar's disposal; and Oriental monarchs have always prided themselves on the immense quantities of the precious metals in their possession.

set it up " -to set up an image" (the same words in the Aram.) is the usual phrase in the heathen inscriptions of Palmyra and the Ḥaurân" (Bevan); see e.g. de Vogué, Syrie Centrale(1868), Nos. 4, 5, 7, 10, 11.

plain properly a broad -cleft," or level (Isaiah 40:4 end) plain, between mountains (see on Amos 1:5).

Dura An inscription cited by Friedrich Delitzsch (Paradies, p. 216) mentions in Babylonia three places called Dûru. According to Oppert (Expéd. en Mésopotamie, i. 238 f.; cf. the chart of the environs of Babylon in Smith, DB., s.v. Babel), there is a small river called the Dura, flowing into the Euphrates from the S., 6 or 7 miles below Babylon; and near this river, about 12 miles S.S.E. of Ḥillah, there are a number of mounds called the Tolûl(or Mounds of) Dûra. One of these, called el-Mokhaṭṭaṭ, consists of a huge rectangular brick structure, some 45 ft. square and 20 ft. high, which may, in Oppert's opinion, have formed once the pedestal of a colossal image.