Daniel 3:21

Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. COATS ... HOSEN ... HATS. Herodotus (1: 195) says that the Babylonian costume consisted of three parts: (1) wide long pantaloons; (2) a woolen shirt; (3) an outer mantle with a girdle round it. So these are specified (Gesenius), 'their pantaloons, long and wide, as they are worn by Orientals (not as the English version, coats), inner tunics (hosen, or stockings, are not commonly worn in the East), and outer mantles' (so the version called 'the breeches Bible' renders it cloaks). Their being cast in so hurriedly, with all their garments on, enhanced the miracle, in that not even the smell of fire passed on their clothes, though of delicate inflammable material....

Here Daniel relates the miracle by which God liberated his servants. He has two parts: first, these three holy men walked untouched in the midst of the flame; and the fires consumed those attendants who east them into the furnace. The Prophet diligently enumerates whatever tends to prove the power of God. He says, _since the king’s command was urgent, _that is, since the king ordered in such anger the furnace to be heated, the flames devour the men who executed his orders. For in Job, (Job 18:5,) שביב, _shebib, _means “spark,” or the extremity of a flame. The sense of the Prophet is by no means obscure, since the extremity of the flame consumed those strong attendants by playing round them, while Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego walked through the fuel in the fire and flame. They were not in the extremity of the flame; for it is as if the Prophet had said — the king’s slaves wer

19-27 Let Nebuchadnezzar heat his furnace as hot as he can, a few minutes will finish the torment of those cast into it; but hell-fire tortures, and yet does not kill. Those who worshipped the beast and his image, have no rest, no pause, no moment free from pain, Revelation 14:10; Revelation 14:11. Now was fulfilled in the letter that great promise, Isaiah 43:2, When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Leaving it to that God who preserved them in the fire, to bring them out, they walked up and down in the midst, supported and encouraged by the presence of the Son of God. Those who suffer for Christ, have his presence in their sufferings, even in the fiery furnace, and in the valley of the shadow...

Verse 21. _THEIR HATS_] This word, _hat_, is found only in this place in the Old Testament. The word סרבל _sarbal_ properly means an outer garment. _Herodotus_, who lived about _one hundred_ years after Daniel, says, "the dress of the Babylonians consisted of a tunic of linen reaching down to the feet; over this a tunic of woollen; and over all a white short cloak or mantle, χλανιδιον; and on their heads they wore _turbans_, μιτρησι." Following this, Mr. _Parkhurst_ translates the verse thus: "Then these three men were bound [בסרבליהון _besarbaleyhon_] in their CLOAKS, [פמישיהון _patesheyhon_] their TURBANS, [וכרבלתהון _vecharbelathehon_] and in their UPPER (woollen) TUNICS, [ולבושיהון _ulebushehon_] and their UNDER (linen) TUNICS." And as, according to this interpretation, their _sarbaley_ were their _outermost garments_, we see the propriety with which it is observed at...

THEN THESE MEN WERE BOUND IN THEIR COATS - They were seized just as they were. No time was given them for preparation; no change was made in their dress. In “autos-da-fe” of later times, it has been usual to array those who were to suffer in a peculiar dress, indicative of the fact that they were heretics, and that they deserved the flame. Here, however, the anger of the king was so great, that no delay was allowed for any such purpose, and they proceeded to execute the sentence upon them just as they were. The fact that they were thus thrown into the furnace, however, only made the miracle the more conspicuous, since not even their garments were affected by the fire. The word rendered “coats,” is in the margin rendered “mantles.” The Chaldee word (סרבלין _sarbâlı̂yn_) means, according to Gesenius, the long and wide pantaloons which are worn by the Orientals, from סרבל _sarbēl_

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 THESE MEN WERE BOUND IN THEIR COATS,.... Their upper coats, cloaks, or mantles, as Aben Ezra and Jacchiades; though, according to the use of the word in the Arabic language, the "femoralia" r or breeches are meant: THEIR HOSEN, AND THEIR HATS, AND THEIR OTHER GARMENTS: their turbants on their heads, which were usually wore in those countries; and their stockings and shoes, and other under garments, as waistcoats and shirts; which through haste or negligence, or with design, were kept on them, to make their torment the greater; but were intended by the Lord to make the miracle the more conspicuous. According to Cocceius s and Bynaeus t, the first of these words signifies the outward covering of the body, as cloaks, c. the second the covering of the feet, as socks, shoes, and sandals; and the third the covering of the head, as caps, turbants, helmets, c. the last the inner garments t...

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...

THESE MEN WERE BOUND IN THEIR COATS, THEIR HOSEN AND THEIR HATS. The language shows that their dress was Babylonian, rather than Jewish. The "coat" was. kind of mantle, as stated in the margin; the "hosen" were not socks, but drawers or trousers, the entire covering of the lower limbs; the "hats" were turbans, or tiarias, such as are now worn in the same country. The margin has "turban." They were bound in the clothing that they had worn, taken just as they were, without change, no time being given for preparation of any kind....