King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Daniel 3
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
the king made an of gold, whose height was threescore , and the breadth thereof six : he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of . Then the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the which the king had set up. Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the that the king had set up; and they stood before the that had set up. Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and , That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and the golden that the king hath set up: And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning furnace. Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the , fell down and the golden that the king had set up. Wherefore at that time certain came near, and accused the . They spake and said to the king , O king, live for ever. Thou, O king, hast made a , that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and the golden : 11And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning furnace. There are certain whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of , , , and Abed–nego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they not thy gods, nor the golden which thou hast set up. Then in his rage and fury commanded to bring , , and Abed–nego. Then they brought these men before the king. spake and said unto them, Is it true, O , , and Abed–nego, do not ye my gods, nor the golden which I have set up? Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and the which I have made; well: but if ye not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning furnace; and who is that that shall you out of my hands? , , and Abed–nego, answered and said to the king, O , we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our whom we is able to us from the burning furnace, and he will us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not thy gods, nor the golden which thou hast set up. Then was full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against , , and Abed–nego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most that were in his army to bind , , and Abed–nego, and to cast them into the burning furnace. 21Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning furnace. Therefore because the king’s was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the slew those men that took up , , and Abed–nego. And these three men, , , and Abed–nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning furnace. Then the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the ? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the , and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of . Then came near to the of the burning furnace, and spake, and said, , , and Abed–nego, ye servants of , come forth, and come hither. Then , , and Abed–nego, came forth of the midst of the . And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the had no , nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of had passed on them. Then spake, and said, be the of , , and Abed–nego, who hath sent his , and his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not nor any , except their own . Therefore I make a , That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the of , , and Abed–nego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other that can after this sort. Then the king promoted , , and Abed–nego, in the province of .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Babylon and the exile, 612 BC to 539 BC ›
Babylon replaces Assyria, Jerusalem and its temple are destroyed in 586 BC, and the leadership of Judah lives in Mesopotamia without a king, a temple, or a country.
- Babylon
- Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilds the city on a scale meant to be seen from a distance: the Ishtar Gate in glazed blue brick, the processional way, the ziggurat, and gardens later counted among the wonders of the world. Babylonian tablets record rations issued to the captive king Jehoiachin of Judah by name, which is one of the tidier points of contact between the Bible and the archives.
- Egypt
- Briefly resurgent. Pharaoh Neco marches north, kills King Josiah at Megiddo, and installs and deposes kings in Jerusalem, until Babylon beats him decisively at Carchemish in 605 BC. Jeremiah spends his career saying that betting on Egypt is suicide, and is proved right.
- Judah
- Deported in stages, then destroyed. The temple is burned, the walls broken, and the leadership marched to Mesopotamia. What happens next is one of the strangest survivals in history: a people keeps its identity without land, king, or sanctuary, and comes out of it with its scriptures more central than before.
- Further afield
- An extraordinary century for ideas everywhere at once. Thales and the first Greek philosophers, Solon's reforms at Athens, the Buddha in India, Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, and Zoroaster in Persia all fall within a few generations of the exile.