Daniel 3:1-7

Daniel’s Friends Are Tested

3:1 ¹ King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden ²  statue made. ³  It was ninety feet ⁴  tall and nine feet ⁵  wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 3:2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent out a summons to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, ⁶  and all the other authorities of the province to attend the dedication of the statue that he ⁷  had erected. 3:3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other provincial authorities assembled for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected. They were standing in front of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had erected. ⁸ 

3:4 Then the herald ⁹  made a loud ¹⁰  proclamation: “To you, O peoples, nations, and language groups, the following command is given: ¹¹  3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ¹²  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ¹³  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected. 3:6 Whoever does not bow down and pay homage will immediately ¹⁴  be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire!” 3:7 Therefore when they all ¹⁵  heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, ¹⁶  and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and language groups began bowing down and paying homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected.

Daniel 5:1-6

Belshazzar Sees Mysterious Handwriting on a Wall

5:1 King Belshazzar ¹⁷  prepared a great banquet ¹⁸  for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of ¹⁹  them all. ²⁰  5:2 While under the influence ²¹  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ²²  had confiscated ²³  from the temple in Jerusalem ²⁴  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ²⁵  5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ²⁶  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ²⁷  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them. 5:4 As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ²⁸  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ²⁹  The king was watching the back ³⁰  of the hand that was writing. 5:6 Then all the color drained from the king’s face ³¹  and he became alarmed. ³²  The joints of his hips gave way, ³³  and his knees began knocking together.

[3:1]  ¹ sn The LXX introduces this chapter with the following chronological note: “in the eighteenth year of.” Such a date would place these events at about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8). However, there seems to be no real basis for associating the events of Daniel 3 with this date.

[3:1]  ² sn There is no need to think of Nebuchadnezzar’s image as being solid gold. No doubt the sense is that it was overlaid with gold (cf. Isa 40:19; Jer 10:3-4), with the result that it presented a dazzling self-compliment to the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar’s achievements.

[3:1]  ³ sn According to a number of patristic authors, the image represented a deification of Nebuchadnezzar himself. This is not clear from the biblical text, however.

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Aram “sixty cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 90 feet (27.4 m) high.

[3:1]  ⁵ tn Aram “six cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 9 feet (2.74 m) wide.

[3:1]  sn The dimensions of the image (ninety feet high and nine feet wide) imply that it did not possess normal human proportions, unless a base for the image is included in the height dimension. The ancient world knew of other tall statues. For example, the Colossus of Rhodes – the huge statue of Helios which stood (ca. 280-224 B.C.) at the entrance to the harbor at Rhodes and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – was said to be seventy cubits (105 ft or 32 m) in height, which would make it even taller than Nebuchadnezzar’s image.

[3:2]  ⁶ sn The specific duties of the seven types of officials listed here (cf. vv. 3, 27) are unclear. The Aramaic words that are used are transliterations of Akkadian or Persian technical terms whose exact meanings are uncertain. The translations given here follow suggestions set forth in BDB.

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Aram “Nebuchadnezzar the king.” The proper name and title have been replaced by the relative pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:3]  ⁸ tc The LXX and Theodotion lack the words “that Nebuchadnezzar had erected.”

[3:4]  ⁹ tn According to BDB 1097 s.v. כָּרוֹז the Aramaic word used here is a Greek loanword, but other scholars have argued instead for a Persian derivation (HALOT 1902 s.v. *כָּרוֹז).

[3:4]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “in strength.”

[3:4]  ¹¹ tn Aram “they are saying.”

[3:5]  ¹² sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.

[3:5]  ¹³ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[3:6]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “in that hour.”

[3:7]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “all the peoples.”

[3:7]  ¹⁶ tc Though not in the Aramaic text of BHS, this word appears in many medieval Hebrew MSS, some LXX MSS, and Vulgate. Cf. vv. 5, 10, 15.

[5:1]  ¹⁷ sn As is clear from the extra-biblical records, it was actually Nabonidus (ca. 556-539 B.C.) who was king of Babylon at this time. However, Nabonidus spent long periods of time at Teima, and during those times Belshazzar his son was de facto king of Babylon. This arrangement may help to explain why later in this chapter Belshazzar promises that the successful interpreter of the handwriting on the wall will be made third ruler in the kingdom. If Belshazzar was in effect second ruler in the kingdom, this would be the highest honor he could grant.

[5:1]  ¹⁸ sn This scene of a Babylonian banquet calls to mind a similar grandiose event recorded in Esth 1:3-8. Persian kings were also renowned in the ancient Near Eastern world for their lavish banquets.

[5:1]  ¹⁹ sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.

[5:1]  ²⁰ tn Aram “the thousand.”

[5:2]  ²¹ tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

[5:2]  ²² tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

[5:2]  ²³ tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ²⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ²⁵ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

[5:3]  ²⁶ tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.

[5:3]  ²⁷ tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”

[5:5]  ²⁸ tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ²⁹ sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

[5:5]  ³⁰ tn While Aramaic פַּס (pas) can mean the palm of the hand, here it seems to be the back of the hand that is intended.

[5:6]  ³¹ tn Aram “[the king’s] brightness changed for him.”

[5:6]  ³² tn Aram “his thoughts were alarming him.”

[5:6]  ³³ tn Aram “his loins went slack.”