Proverbs 19:12

19:12 A king’s wrath is like ¹  the roar of a lion, ² 

but his favor is like dew on the grass. ³ 

Proverbs 20:2

20:2 The king’s terrifying anger ⁴  is like the roar of a lion;

whoever provokes him ⁵  sins against himself. ⁶ 

Daniel 3:13-25

3:13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in a fit of rage ⁷  demanded that they bring ⁸  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before him. So they brought them ⁹  before the king. 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don’t serve my gods and that you don’t pay homage to the golden statue that I erected? 3:15 Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must bow down and pay homage to the statue that I had made. If you don’t pay homage to it, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. Now, who is that god who can rescue you from my power?” ¹⁰  3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar, ¹¹  “We do not need to give you a reply ¹²  concerning this. 3:17 If ¹³  our God whom we are serving exists, ¹⁴  he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well. 3:18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”

3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed ¹⁵  toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders ¹⁶  to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated. 3:20 He ordered strong ¹⁷  soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 3:21 So those men were tied up while still wearing their cloaks, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, ¹⁸  and were thrown into the furnace ¹⁹  of blazing fire. 3:22 But since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace was so excessively hot, the men who escorted ²⁰  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were killed ²¹  by the leaping flames. ²²  3:23 But those three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell into the furnace ²³  of blazing fire while still securely bound. ²⁴ 

God Delivers His Servants

3:24 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 ²⁵  into ²⁶  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!” ²⁷ 

Luke 12:4-5

12:4 “I ²⁸  tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, ²⁹  and after that have nothing more they can do. 12:5 But I will warn ³⁰  you whom you should fear: Fear the one who, after the killing, ³¹  has authority to throw you ³²  into hell. ³³  Yes, I tell you, fear him!

[19:12]  ¹ sn The verse contrasts the “rage” of the king with his “favor” by using two similes. The first simile presents the king at his most dangerous – his anger (e.g., 20:2; Amos 3:4). The second simile presents his favor as beneficial for life (e.g., 16:14-15; 28:15).

[19:12]  ² tn Heb “is a roaring like a lion.”

[19:12]  ³ sn The proverb makes an observation about a king’s power to terrify or to refresh. It advises people to use tact with a king.

[20:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the terror of a king” (so ASV, NASB); The term “terror” is a metonymy of effect for cause: the anger of a king that causes terror among the people. The term “king” functions as a possessive genitive: “a king’s anger” (cf. NIV “A king’s wrath”; NLT “The king’s fury”).

[20:2]  ⁵ tn The verb מִתְעַבְּרוֹ (mit’abbÿro) is problematic; in the MT the form is the Hitpael participle with a pronominal suffix, which is unusual, for the direct object of this verb usually takes a preposition first: “is angry with.” The LXX rendered it “angers [or, irritates].”

[20:2]  ⁶ sn The expression “sins against himself” has been taken by some to mean “forfeits his life” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “endangers his life” (cf. NCV, NLT). That may be the implication of getting oneself in trouble with an angry king (cf. TEV “making him angry is suicide”).

[3:13]  ⁷ tn Aram “in anger and wrath”; NASB “in rage and anger.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[3:13]  ⁸ tn The Aramaic infinitive is active.

[3:13]  ⁹ tn Aram “these men.” The pronoun is used in the translation to avoid undue repetition.

[3:15]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “hand.” So also in v. 17.

[3:16]  ¹¹ tc In the MT this word is understood to begin the following address (“answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar’”). However, it seems unlikely that Nebuchadnezzar’s subordinates would address the king in such a familiar way, particularly in light of the danger that they now found themselves in. The present translation implies moving the atnach from “king” to “Nebuchadnezzar.”

[3:16]  ¹² tn Aram “to return a word to you.”

[3:17]  ¹³ tc The ancient versions typically avoid the conditional element of v. 17.

[3:17]  ¹⁴ tn The Aramaic expression used here is very difficult to interpret. The question concerns the meaning and syntax of אִיתַי (’itay, “is” or “exist”). There are several possibilities. (1) Some interpreters take this word closely with the participle later in the verse יָכִל (yakhil, “able”), understanding the two words to form a periphrastic construction (“if our God is…able”; cf. H. Bauer and P. Leander, Grammatik des Biblisch-Aramäischen, 365, §111b). But the separation of the two elements from one another is not an argument in favor of this understanding. (2) Other interpreters take the first part of v. 17 to mean “If it is so, then our God will deliver us” (cf. KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB). However, the normal sense of ’itay is existence; on this point see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 45, §95. The present translation maintains the sense of existence for the verb (“If our God…exists”), even though the statement is admittedly difficult to understand in this light. The statement may be an implicit reference back to Nebuchadnezzar’s comment in v. 15, which denies the existence of a god capable of delivering from the king’s power.

[3:19]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “the appearance of his face was altered”; cf. NLT “his face became distorted with rage”; NAB “[his] face became livid with utter rage.”

[3:19]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “he answered and said.”

[3:20]  ¹⁷ tn This is sometimes taken as a comparative: “[some of the] strongest.”

[3:21]  ¹⁸ sn There is a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the specific nature of these items of clothing.

[3:21]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “into the midst of the furnace.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:22]  ²⁰ tn Aram “caused to go up.”

[3:22]  ²¹ tn The Aramaic verb is active.

[3:22]  ²² tn Aram “the flame of the fire” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NRSV “the raging flames.”

[3:23]  ²³ tn Aram “into the midst of the furnace.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:23]  ²⁴ sn The deuterocanonical writings known as The Prayer of Azariah and The Song of the Three present at this point a confession and petition for God’s forgiveness and a celebration of God’s grace for the three Jewish youths in the fiery furnace. Though not found in the Hebrew/Aramaic text of Daniel, these compositions do appear in the ancient Greek versions.

[3:24]  ²⁵ tn Aram “we threw…bound.”

[3:24]  ²⁶ tn Aram “into the midst of.”

[3:25]  ²⁷ 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.”

[12:4]  ²⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:4]  ²⁹ sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.

[12:5]  ³⁰ tn Grk “will show,” but in this reflective context such a demonstration is a warning or exhortation.

[12:5]  ³¹ sn The actual performer of the killing is not here specified. It could be understood to be God (so NASB, NRSV) but it could simply emphasize that, after a killing has taken place, it is God who casts the person into hell.

[12:5]  ³² tn The direct object (“you”) is understood.

[12:5]  ³³ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).