Daniel 3:4-6

3:4 Then the herald ¹  made a loud ²  proclamation: “To you, O peoples, nations, and language groups, the following command is given: ³  3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ⁴  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ⁵  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 ⁶  be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire!”

[3:4]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Aram “in strength.”

[3:4]  ³ tn Aram “they are saying.”

[3:5]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[3:6]  ⁶ tn Aram “in that hour.”