Daniel 3:2

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. THEN NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE KING SENT TO GATHER TOGETHER THE PRINCES - "satraps" of provinces. (Gesenius). CAPTAINS - rulers, not exclusively military. SHERIFFS - men learned in the law, like the Arab Mufti (Gesenius)....

I do not know the derivation of the word “_Satra _p;” but manifestly all these are names of magistracies, and I allow myself to translate the words freely, since they are not Hebrew, and the Jews are equally ignorant of their origin. Some of them, indeed, appear too subtle; but they assert nothing but what is frivolous and foolish. We must be content with the simple expression — _he sent to collect the satraps _...

1-7 In the height of the image, about thirty yards, probably is included a pedestal, and most likely it was only covered with plates of gold, not a solid mass of that precious metal. Pride and bigotry cause men to require their subjects to follow their religion, whether right or wrong, and when worldly interest allures, and punishment overawes, few refuse. This is easy to the careless, the sensual, and the infidel, who are the greatest number; and most will go their ways. There is nothing so bad which the careless world will not be drawn to by a concert of music, or driven to by a fiery furnace. By such methods, false worship has been set up and maintained....

Verse Daniel 3:2. _SENT TO GATHER TOGETHER THE PRINCES_] It is not easy to show what these different offices were, as it is difficult to ascertain the meaning of the _Chaldee_ words. _Parkhurst_ analyzes them thus: - _THE PRINCES_] אחשדרפניא _achashdarpenaiya_, from אחש _achash,_ _great_ or _eminent_, and דר _dar_, "to go about freely," and פנים _panim_, "the presence." Satraps or privy counsellors who had free access to the presence of the king. _THE GOVERNORS_] סגניא _signaiya, lieutenants_ or _viceroys_, for סגן _sagan_, among the Hebrews, was the name of the high priest's _deputy_. _THE CAPTAINS_] פחותא _pachavatha_, from פח _pach, to extend_, because set over those provinces that had been _annexed_ to the kingdom by conquest.

THEN, NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE KING SENT TO GATHER TOGETHER THE PRINCES - It is difficult now, if not impossible, to determine the exact meaning of the words used here with reference to the various officers designated; and it is not material that it should be done. The general sense is, that he assembled the great officers of the realm to do honor to the image. The object was doubtless to make the occasion as magnificent as possible. Of course, if these high officers were assembled, an immense multitude of the people would congregate also. That this was contemplated, and that it in fact occurred, is apparent from Daniel 3:4, Daniel 3:7. The word rendered “princes” (אחשׁדרפניא _'ăchash__e__dar__e__p__e_

EXPOSITION DANIEL 3:1 THE GOLDEN IMAGE, AND THE FIERY FURNACE. DANIEL 3:1 NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE KING MADE AN IMAGE OF GOLD, WHOSE HEIGHT WAS THREE SCORE CUBITS, AND THE BREADTH THEREOF AIR CUBITS: HE SET IT UP IN THE PLAIN OF DURA, IN THE PROVINCE OF BABYLON. The Septuagint Version is full of redundance and interpolation, "In the eighteenth year King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled cities and countries, and all those dwelling (in them)over the earth from India even to Ethiopia, made a golden image; the height of it was sixty cubits, and the breadth of it six cubits, and set it up in a plain within the boundary of the provinc

THEN NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE KING SENT TO GATHER TOGETHER THE PRINCES,.... He sent letters, or dispatched messengers, into the several provinces of his empire, and parts of his dominions, to convene all the peers of his realm, and governors of provinces, and all officers, civil, military, and religious, expressed by various names and titles: THE GOVERNORS, AND THE CAPTAINS, THE JUDGES, THE TREASURERS, THE COUNSELLORS, THE SHERIFFS, AND ALL THE RULERS OF THE PROVINCES; who are particularly and distinctly designed is not easy to say. Jacchiades thinks they answer to the same offices and officers which now obtain in the Turkish empire; princes are the "bashaws"; governors the "beglerbegs"; captains the "agas" of the janizaries; judges the "kadies"; treasurers the "dephterdaries"; the counsellors the "alphakies"; and "zayties the sheriffs"; their chief doctors their "muphties", as L'Empereur; an...

CHAPTER 3 THE IMAGE OF GOLD _ 1. The image of gold (Daniel 3:1)_ 2. The faithful three (Daniel 3:8) 3. The miraculous deliverance (Daniel 3:19) 4. The worshipping king (Daniel 3:26) Daniel 3:1 . He had an immense statue of gold made, the image of a man, no doubt, and he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. It was idolatry and the deification of man. Idolatry and the deification of man are then the first moral characteristics mentioned which are to prevail during the times of the Gentiles. The times of the

DANIEL 3. THE GOLDEN IMAGE AND THE FIERY FURNACE. Nebuchadnezzar made a colossal image of gold and commanded the people to worship it. The three friends of Daniel refused to comply with the order. The king thereupon had them thrown into a burning fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. But the fire had no power to consume them, and there appeared walking by the side of the three men in the midst of the furnace a fourth whose aspect was like a son of the gods. The message of this chapter to the men of the Maccabean age is obvious. The devotion and fidelity of the three heroes who faced the fiery furnace rather than prove traitors to their God is held up as an example to those whom Antiochus Epiphanes was tempting to betray their Lord, and their marvellous rescue is held up as a Divine deliverance, and an illustration of the fulfilment of the prophecy of Deutero-Isaiah: When th...

THE KING SENT. This great Durbar would hardly have taken place till after the campaign referred to in note on "came" (Daniel 1:1). It was therefore probably held about 475 B. C, in Daniel's thirty-eighth year, twenty years after Nebuchadnezzar's dream of himself, the "head of gold" (Daniel 2). TO GATHER TOGETHER, &C. Note the eight technical terms. Well known to Daniel, but difficult for. Jew in Jer 300 years later to enumerate so minutely and so accurately. PRINCES. satraps. GOVERNORS. See note on Daniel 2:48. CAPTAINS. pashas (as in Nehemiah 5:14;...