Daniel 3:6

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 Mateus 8:3; Mateus 27:48; Marcos 1:42; Atos 11:11; Atos 11:16; comp.

(in the Greek) Mateus 8:3; Mateus 10:19; Mateus 18:1; Lucas 2:38; Lucas 7:21; Lucas 10:21, and elsewhere.

-Hour" (shâ-âh) does not occur in Biblical Hebrew; but it is common in Aramaic (Targums and Syriac) and later Hebrew. Originally it denoted any small interval of time, and was only gradually fixed definitely to what we call an -hour."

shall be cast, &c. Cruel punishments were in vogue among both the Assyrians and the Babylonians. In Jeremias 29:12 allusion is made to two Jews, Zedekiah and Ahab, whom (for some reason not stated) -the king of Babylon roasted in the fire." (The statement, sometimes made, that Asshurbanipal's rebel brother, Shamash-shum-ukin, was punished in this manner, appears to rest on a misconception: see KB[226] ii. 191 [Annals iv. 50 f.], and Maspero, Passing of the Empires, p. 422.)

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