Discovery BoxDaniel 3:24--4:3
Context3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was startled and quickly got up. He said to his ministers, “Wasn’t it three men that we tied up and threw 1 into 2 the fire?” They replied to the king, “For sure, O king.” 3:25 He answered, “But I see four men, untied and walking around in the midst of the fire! No harm has come to them! And the appearance of the fourth is like that of a god!” 3 3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire. He called out, 4 “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out! Come here!”
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. 5 3:27 Once the satraps, prefects, governors, and ministers of the king had gathered around, they saw that those men were physically 6 unharmed by the fire. 7 The hair of their heads was not singed, nor were their trousers damaged. Not even the smell of fire was to be found on them!
3:28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, 8 “Praised be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent forth his angel 9 and has rescued his servants who trusted in him, ignoring 10 the edict of the king and giving up their bodies rather than 11 serve or pay homage to any god other than their God! 3:29 I hereby decree 12 that any people, nation, or language group that blasphemes 13 the god of Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego will be dismembered and his home reduced to rubble! For there exists no other god who can deliver in this way.” 3:30 Then Nebuchadnezzar 14 promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
4:1 (3:31) 15 “King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations, and language groups that live in all the land: Peace and prosperity! 16 4:2 I am delighted to tell you about the signs and wonders that the most high God has done for me.
4:3 “How great are his signs!
How mighty are his wonders!
His kingdom will last forever, 17
and his authority continues from one generation to the next.”
[3:24] 1 tn Aram “we threw…bound.”
[3:24] 2 tn Aram “into the midst of.”
[3:25] 3 sn The phrase like that of a god is in Aramaic “like that of a son of the gods.” Many patristic writers understood this phrase in a christological sense (i.e., “the Son of God”). But it should be remembered that these are words spoken by a pagan who is seeking to explain things from his own polytheistic frame of reference; for him the phrase “like a son of the gods” is equivalent to “like a divine being.”
[3:26] 4 tn Aram “answered and said.”
[3:26] 5 tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.
[3:27] 6 tn Aram “in their bodies.”
[3:27] 7 tn Aram “the fire did not have power.”
[3:28] 8 tn Aram “answered and said.”
[3:28] 9 sn The king identifies the “son of the gods” (v. 25) as an angel. Comparable Hebrew expressions are used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for the members of God’s angelic assembly (see Gen 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Pss 29:1; 89:6). An angel later comes to rescue Daniel from the lions (Dan 6:22).
[3:28] 10 tn Aram “they changed” or “violated.”
[3:28] 11 tn Aram “so that they might not.”
[3:29] 12 tn Aram “from me is placed an edict.”
[3:29] 13 tn Aram “speaks negligence.”
[3:30] 14 tn Aram “and the king.” The proper name has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[4:1] 15 sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:37 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Aramaic text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:31 AT, 4:2 ET = 3:32 AT, 4:3 ET = 3:33 AT, 4:4 ET = 4:1 AT, etc., through 4:37 ET = 4:34 AT. Thus Dan 3:31-33 of the Aramaic text appears as Dan 4:1-3 in the English Bible, and the corresponding verses of ch. 4 differ accordingly. In spite of the division of the Aramaic text, a good case can be made that 3:31-33 AT (= 4:1-3 ET) is actually the introduction to ch. 4.
