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?

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

ASV

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said unto them, Is it of purpose, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that ye serve not my god, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

YLT

Nebuchadnezzar hath answered and said to them, `Is it a laid plan, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego--my gods ye are not serving, and to the golden image that I have raised up ye are not doing obeisance?

DBT

Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said unto them, Is it of purpose, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that ye serve not mygod, nor worship the golden image that I have set up?

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Voices4

On this verse

Verse 14. "Do ye not serve my gods, and do you not worship the golden statue which I have set up?..." Other authorities assert that it is the custom of Holy Scripture to speak of the one and same idol in the plural, just like the verse in Exodus concerning the calf: "These are thy gods, O Israel, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4). Also in the Book of Kings, where Jeroboam is establishing the golden calf in Bethel, he is said to have fashioned idols (1 Kings 12:26-28).

Jerome· St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER THREE, 420patristic

Related commentary

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, is it true,.... What I have heard of you, what you are charged with and accused of; surely it cannot be; so Aben Ezra and Saadiah interpret the word as we do, and all the Oriental versions: it is only used in this place: it is expressed by way of admiration, as Jacchiades observes; it being incredible to the king, what he could never believe, unless it appeared plain in his own eyes.

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

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true - Margin, of purpose; that is, have you done this intentionally? Wintle renders this, Is it insultingly? Jacchiades says that the word is used to denote admiration or wonder, as if the king could not believe that it was possible that they could disregard so plain a command, when disobedience was accompanied with such a threat. De Dieu renders it, Is it a joke? That is, can you possibly be serious or in earnest that you disobey so positive a command?

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

Is it true--rather, as the Margin [THEODOTION], "Is it purposely that?" &c. Compare the Hebrew, Nu 35:20, 22. Notwithstanding his "fury," his past favor for them disposes him to give them the opportunity of excusing themselves on the ground that their disobedience had not been intentional; so he gives them another trial to see whether they would still worship the image.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed

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Cross-references

7 linked verses

The verses this one reaches7

Jeremiah 50:2
“Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’
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.
Isaiah 46:1
Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.
Daniel 4:8
But at last, into my presence came Daniel (whose name is Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods). And I told him the dream:
Exodus 21:13–14
If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.
Isaiah 44:10
Who fashions a god or casts an idol which profits him nothing?
John 19:10
So Pilate said to Him, “Do You refuse to speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?”

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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.

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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
Jeremiah 50:2
“Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced,…
leads to
- Isaiah 21:9
  Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- Isaiah 46:1
  Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.
Through
Isaiah 46:1
Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.
leads to
- Jeremiah 51:44
  I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Through
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.
leads to
- 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 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…

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