Daniel 3:1

King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

ASV

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

YLT

Nebuchadnezzar the king hath made an image of gold, its height sixty cubits, its breadth six cubits; he hath raised it up in the valley of Dura, in the province of Babylon;

DBT

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, [and] its breadth six cubits; he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

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Commentary voices

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Voices5

On this verse

Verse 1. "Nebuchadnezzar the king made a golden statue seventy cubits in height and six cubits in breadth." How soon he forgot the truth, when he had just been worshipping a servant of God as if he had been God Himself, but now commanded a statue to be made for himself in order that he personally might be worshipped in the statue!

Jerome· Commentary on Daniel, 420patristic

Related commentary

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold - The time when he did this is not mentioned; nor is it stated in whose honor, or for what design, this colossal image was erected. In the Greek and Arabic translationns, this is said to have occurred in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. This is not, however, in the original text, nor is it known on what authority it is asserted. Dean Prideaux (Consex. I.

Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical

But at the same time some pretense to piety was joined with it; for he pretended that he wished to worship God. Hence, also, what I formerly mentioned appears more clear, namely, -- King Nebuchadnezzar was not truly and heartily converted, but rather remained fixed in his own errors, when he was attributing glory to the God of Israel.

John Calvin· Commentaries, 1554reformed

Note, The worshippers of false gods are not wont to mind charges in setting up images and worshipping them; they lavish gold out of the bag for that purpose ( Isa. xlvi. 6 ), which shames our niggardliness in the worship of the true God. The vastness of it; it was threescore cubits high and six cubits broad.

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan

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Cross-references

35 linked verses

The verses this one reaches12

Habakkuk 2:19
Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”
Jeremiah 16:20
Can man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!”
Isaiah 46:6
They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship.
Hosea 8:4
They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.
Acts 17:29
Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
Acts 19:26
And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.
Isaiah 40:19–31
To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains?
Psalms 135:15
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
Daniel 3:14
and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden statue I have set up?
2 Kings 19:17–18
Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands.
Isaiah 2:20
In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold— the idols they made to worship.
Psalms 115:4–8
Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.

23 more linked verses are grouped by book below ↓

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Original language

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

Who & where

PlaceBabil Governorate (archaeological site)BabylonAncient Mesopotamian city and imperial capital; site of the Israelite exile and a recurring biblical symbol of worldly power.

Featured studies

Featured studyFaith Under Fire — the Furnace and the Lions' DenThis study walks through this verse.

About this book

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Furnace — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866) — public domain

Daniel — A Hebrew exile at Babylonian and Persian courts sees empires rise and fall, a Son of Man coming with clouds, and seventy weeks locating Messiah in time. The canon's densest apocalyptic text — and its most interpretively contested.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Daniel (traditional — Jesus cites ‘Daniel the prophet’ in Matt 24:15); critical scholarship dates composition to the 2nd c. BC Maccabean period (both positions surfaced)
Date: Traditional: 6th c. BC. Critical: c. 165 BC. Site default: traditional; critical view surfaced at depth 2

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Acts 17:29
Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
leads to
- Psalms 115:4–8
  Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- Isaiah 40:25
  “To whom will you liken Me, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.
- Exodus 20:4
  You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
- Isaiah 46:5–6
  To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal? To whom will you compare Me, that we should be alike?
- Habakkuk 2:19–20
  Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”
Through
Habakkuk 2:19
Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”
leads to
- Psalms 135:17
  they have ears, but cannot hear; nor is there breath in their mouths.
Through
Isaiah 46:6
They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship.
leads to
- Acts 17:29
  Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Through
Jeremiah 16:20
Can man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!”
leads to
- Isaiah 37:19
  They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

Where the connections lead

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