Daniel 3:11

3:8-18 True devotion calms the spirit, quiets and softens it, but superstition and devotion to false gods inflame men's passions. The matter is put into a little compass, Turn, or burn. Proud men are still ready to say, as Nebuchadnezzar, Who is the Lord, that I should fear his power? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not hesitate whether they should comply or not. Life or death were not to be considered. Those that would avoid sin, must not parley with temptation when that to which we are allured or affrighted is manifestly evil. Stand not to pause about it, but say, as Christ did, Get thee behind me, Satan. They did not contrive an evasive answer, when a direct answer was expected. Those who make their duty their main care, need not be anxious or fearful concerning the event. The faithful servants of God find him able to control and overrule all the powers armed against them. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst. If He be for us, we need not fear what man can do unto us. God will deliver us, either from death or in death. They must obey God rather than man; they must rather suffer than sin; and must not do evil that good may come. Therefore none of these things moved them. The saving them from sinful compliance, was as great a miracle in the kingdom of grace, as the saving them out of the fiery furnace was in the kingdom of nature.

Fear of man and love of the world, especially want of faith, make men yield to temptation, while a firm persuasion of the truth will deliver them from denying Christ, or being ashamed of him. We are to be meek in our replies, but we must be decided that we will obey God rather than man.

Thou, O king, hast made a decree ... - See Daniel 3:4-5 . As the decree included "every man" who heard the sound of the music, it of course embraced the Jews, whatever religious scruples they might have. Whether their scruples, however, were known at the time is not certain; or whether they would have been regarded if known, is no more certain.

And now will I show thee the truth - That is, the truth about events that are to occur in the future, and which will accord with what is written in "the scripture of truth," Daniel 10:21 . Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia - The phrase "stand up means that there would be so many kings in Persia; that is, there would be three before the fourth which he mentions. The same Hebrew word here rendered "stand up" (עמד ‛âmad) occurs in Daniel 11:3-4, Daniel 11:6-8, Daniel 11:14-16 (twice), Daniel 11:17, Daniel 11:20, Daniel 11:21, Daniel 11:25, Daniel 11:31; also in Daniel 12:1, Daniel 12:13. In Daniel 11:8 it is rendered "continue;" in Daniel 11:15, "withstand;" in the other cases, "stand up," or simply stand. Gesenius says it is a word used particularly of a new prince, as in Daniel 8:23; Daniel 11:2-3, Daniel 11:20. He does not say that there would be none afterward, but he evidently designs to touch on the great and leading events respecting the Persian empire, so far as they would affect the Hebrew people, and so far as they would constitute prominent points in the history of the world. He does not, therefore, go into all the details respecting the history, nor does he mention all the kings that would reign.

The Chaldeans immediately denounced Daniel's three friends as transgressors of the king's command. דּנה כּל־קבל, therefore, viz., because the friends of Daniel who were placed over the province of Babylon had not, by falling down before the golden image, done it homage. That they did not do so is not expressly said, but is expressed in what follows. כּשׂדּאין גּברין are not Chaldeans as astrologers of magi (כּשׂדּים), but members of the Chaldean nation, in contrast to יהוּדיא, the Jews. קרבוּ, they came near to the king. דּי קרצי אכל, literally, to eat the flesh of any one, is in Aramaic the common expression for to calumniate, to denounce. That which was odious in their report was, that they used this instance of disobedience to the king's command on the part of the Jewish officers as an occasion of removing them from their offices, - that their denunciation of them arose from their envying the Jews their position of influence, as in Daniel 6:5 (4)f. Therefore they give prominence to the fact that the king had raised these Jews to places of rule in the province of Babylon. With this form of address in Daniel 3:9, cf. Daniel 2:4. טעם שׂים signifies in Daniel 3:12 rationem reddere, to attend to, to have regard for. In Daniel 3:10, as frequently, the expression signifies, on the contrary, to give an opinion, a judgment, i.e., to publish a command.

The Keth. לאלהיך (Daniel 3:12), for which the Keri prefers the sing. form לאלהך, in sound the same as the contracted plur., is to be maintained as correct; for the Keri here, as in Daniel 3:18, supporting itself on לאלהי, Daniel 3:14, rests on the idea that by the honouring of his god only the doing of homage to the image is meant, while the not doing homage to the image only gives proof of this, that they altogether refused to honour the gods of Nebuchadnezzar. This is placed in the foreground by the accusers, so as to arouse the indignation of the king. "These Chaldeans," Hitz. remarks quite justly, "knew the three Jews, who were so placed as to be well known, and at the same time envied, before this. They had long known that they did not worship idols; but on this occasion, when their religion made it necessary for the Jews to disobey the king's command, they make use of their knowledge."

41 . the beauteous land ] the land of Israel, as Daniel 11:16 . shall be overthrown ] lit. shall stumble ( Daniel 11:14; Daniel 11:19; Daniel 11:33; Daniel 11:35 ), i.e. be ruined: cf., for the expression, Isaiah 3:8 ‘Jerusalem hath stumbled ’ (A.V., R.V., is ruined ). The word for ‘many’ is fem.: hence ‘countries’ must be understood from Daniel 11:40 , though it is, of course, their inhabitants who are really meant. Bevan, Behrmann, Marti, Kamph., and Prince (with the change of a point) read ‘ tens of thousands shall be overthrown’ (cf. Daniel 11:12 ). Some countries will, however, escape; in particular, three of Israel’s ancient foes, of whom at least Edom and the Ammonites shewed hostility against the Jews at this time (cf. 1Ma 4:61 ; 1Ma 5:1-8 ). Jason, the renegade high-priest, twice found an asylum with the Ammonites ( 2Ma 4:26 ; 2Ma 5:7 ). escape ] be delivered (R.V.). ( Escape is needed for a different Heb. word in Daniel 11:42 .) the chief of , &c.] i.e. the principal part of them. Cf., for the word, Numbers 24:20 ; Jeremiah 49:35 ; Amos 6:1 .

17 . afraid ] affrighted (R.V.), as Isaiah 21:4 , A.V. ( Job 7:14 al. ‘terrify’): ‘afraid’ is not strong enough. At the approach of the celestial being Daniel is terrified. fell upon my face ] a mark of awe or respect ( Genesis 17:3 ; Jdg 13:20 ; Ruth 2:10 , al. ); cf. in the visions of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 1:28 ; Ezekiel 3:23 ; Ezekiel 9:8 ; Ezekiel 11:13 ; Ezekiel 43:3 ; Ezekiel 44:4 . Song of Solomon of man ] Borrowed, no doubt, from the book of Ezekiel, where it is the standing title by which the prophet is addressed ( Daniel 2:1 ; Daniel 2:3 ; Daniel 2:6 ; Daniel 2:8 , Daniel 3:1 ; Daniel 3:3-4 ; Daniel 3:10 ; Daniel 3:17 ; Daniel 3:25 , &c.—more than a hundred times altogether). for the vision belongeth to the time of the end ] and therefore deserves attention. The ‘time of the end’ is a standing expression in Daniel ( Daniel 11:35 ; Daniel 11:40 , Daniel 12:4 ; Daniel 12:9 ; cf. ‘the appointed-time [ מועד ] of the end’ Daniel 8:19 , and ‘the end’ Daniel 9:26 b ), and means (spoken from Daniel’s standpoint) the period of Antiochus’s persecution, together with the short interval, consisting of a few months, which followed before his death ( Daniel 11:35 ; Daniel 11:40 ), that being, in the view of the author, the ‘end’ of the present condition of things, and the divine kingdom ( Daniel 7:14 ; Daniel 7:18 ; Daniel 7:22 ; Daniel 7:27 , Daniel 12:2-3 ) being established immediately afterwards.