Bible Commentaries
Daniel 3

Verse 4

Verse Daniel 3:4. Then a herald cried aloud — כרוזא קרא בחיל caroza kara bechayil, "a crier called with might." A bedel cried mightili. - Old MS. Bible.

Verse 5

Verse Daniel 3:5. The sound of the CORNET — There is not less difficulty in ascertaining the precise meaning of these musical instruments than there is in the offices in Daniel 3:2. קרנא karna, here translated cornet, is the common blowing horn, which makes a deep and hollow sound, as well as one shrill and piercing.

FLUTE — משרוקיתא mashrokitha, from שרק sharak, to whistle, shriek. A wind instrument which made a strong and shrill noise, such as the hautbois or clarionet.

HARP — קיתרס kithros, cytharus; κιθαρα. Some kind of stringed instrument. It seems to be formed from the Greek word.

SACKBUT — סבכא sabbecha. The Greek has it σαμβυκη, from which our word sackbut, from סבך sabach, to interweave; probably on account of the number of chords, for it seems to have been a species of harp.

PSALTERY — פסנתרין pesanterin; Greek, ψαλτηριον. A stringed instrument, struck with a plectrum; that called santeer in Egypt is probably the same. Dr. Russel says: "It is a large triangle, and has two bottoms two inches from each other, with about twenty catguts of different sizes." It was the ancient psalterium, and most probably the same as David's harp.

DULCIMER — סומפניה sumponeyah; Greek, συμφωνεια. Probably a kind of tamboor, tambourine, or tomtom drum. It does not mean the same as the Greek symphonia, which signifies a concert or harmony of many instruments, for here one kind of instrument only is intended.

All kinds of music — כל זני זמרא col zeney zemara, the whole stock, or band, of music; the preceding being the chief, the most common, and the most sonorous. My old MS. Bible has, Trumpe, and Pipe, and Harpe: Sambuke, Santrie, and Synfonye, and al kynde of musykes.

Verse 6

Verse Daniel 3:6. Shall the same hour — This is the first place in the Old Testament where we find the division of time into hours. The Greeks say that Anaximander was the inventor. He had it probably from the Chaldeans, among whom this division was in use long before Anaximander was born.

Be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. — This was an ancient mode of punishment among the Chaldeans, if we may credit the tradition that Abram was cast into such a fire by this idolatrous people because he would not worship their idols.

Verse 8

Verse Daniel 3:8. Accused the Jews. — That is, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. The other Jews were left unnoticed; and probably at this time Daniel was too high to be touched; but we may rest assured that he was not found among these idolaters, see Daniel 3:12.

Verse 16

Verse 16. We are not careful — We have no need to put thee to any farther trouble; we have made up our minds on this subject, and have our answer ready: Be it known unto thee, WE WILL NOT SERVE THY GODS. This was as honest as it was decisive.

Verse 17

Verse 17. If it be so — Thou mayest cast us into the furnace; the terror of it has no effect on our minds to induce us to alter the resolution we have taken, nor shall the fire change our purpose. We serve a God who is able to deliver us. Should he not, we are equally determined; but we are satisfied that in some way or other he will deliver us out of thy hand. Thy power cannot affect us in the kingdom of our God to which we shall ascend from thy furnace, should he permit the fire to kindle upon us. "Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's," is a maxim of Jesus Christ; but when Caesar arrogates to himself the things that are the Lord's, then, and in such cases, his authority is to be resisted. God does not desire Caesar's things; Caesar's must not have the things of God.

Verse 19

Verse 19. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury — How strange is this, after having had so many proofs of the supremacy of Jehovah! He had seen how God poured contempt upon his authority in the case of the three Hebrews, and yet he will try his strength once more! How infatuated is man!

Seven times more — As hot as it could be made. Seven expresses the great intensity of the heat.

Verse 20

Verse 20. The most mighty men — The generals, or chief officers of his army; not strong men, there was no need of such.

Verse 21

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 Daniel 3:27 that these were not changed by the fire.

Verse 23

Verse 23. And these three men - fell down bound — There is a most evident want of connexion between this and the following verse; and it is between these verses that the apocryphal Song of the Three Children, as it is called, has been inserted by St. Jerome and others; but with this note: Quae sequuntur in Hebraeis voluminibus non reperi; "What follows I have not found in the Hebrew books." And then begins, "They walked in the midst of the flame, praising God, and blessing the Lord." The Septuagint and Arabic read the twenty-fourth verse thus: "Then Nebuchadnezzar heard them singing praise, and was astonished." To connect the two verses Houbigant adds two verses found in the Vulgate, which are the forty-ninth and the twenty-third: "But an angel of the Lord went down with Azariah and his companions into the furnace, and drove out the flame of fire from the furnace; and they walked in the midst of the furnace." This verse (the forty-ninth) has been added to show the reason of Nebuchadnezzar's astonishment, and also to account for the appearance of a fourth person in the furnace, as in Daniel 3:25.

Verse 25

Verse 25. Is like the Son of God. — A most improper translation. What notion could this idolatrous king have of the Lord Jesus Christ? for so the place is understood by thousands. בר אלהין bar elahin signifies a son of the gods, that is, a Divine person or angel; and so the king calls him in Daniel 3:28: "God hath sent his ANGEL, and delivered his servants." And though even from this some still contend that it was the Angel of the covenant, yet the Babylonish king knew just as much of the one as he did of the other. No other ministration was necessary; a single angel from heaven was quite sufficient to answer this purpose, as that which stopped the mouths of the lions when Daniel was cast into their den.

Verse 27

Verse 27. Upon whose bodies the fire had no pouter — The heathens boasted that their priests could walk on burning coals unhurt; and Virgil mentions this of the priests of Apollo of Soracte: -

Summe Deum, sancti custos Soractis Apollo!

Quem primi colimus, cui pineus ardor acervo

Pascitur; et medium, freti pietate, per ignem

Cultores multa premimus vestigia pruna.

VIRG. AEn. xi. 785.

O Phoebus, guardian of Soracte's woods

And shady hills; a god above the gods;

To whom our natives pay the rites divine,

And burn whole crackling groves of hallowed pine;

Walk through the fire in honour of thy name,

Unhurt, unsinged, and sacred from the flame.

PITTS.

But Varro tells us that they anointed the soles of their feet with a species of unguent that preserved them from being burnt. Very lately a female showed many feats of this kind, putting red hot iron upon her arms, breasts, c., and passing it over her hair without the slightest inconvenience but in the case of the three Hebrews all was supernatural, and the king and his officers well knew it.

Verse 28

Verse 28. Blessed be the God of Shadrach, &c. — Here is a noble testimony from a heathen. And what produced it? The intrepidly pious conduct of these three noble Jews. Had they been time-servers, the name of the true God had not been known in Babylon. What honour does the Lord put on them that are steadfast in the faith!

Verse 29

Verse 29. Speak any thing amiss — Though by the decree the king does not oblige the people to worship the true God, yet he obliges them to treat him with reverence.

Verse 30

Verse Daniel 3:30. Then the king promoted, &c. — He restored them to the offices which they held before the charge of disobedience and treason was brought against them.

At the end of this verse the Septuagint add, "And he advanced them to be governors over all the Jews that were in his kingdom." This may be the meaning of the latter verse. They were more likely to be set over the Jews than over the Chaldeans.