Daniel 3:24 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 3:24
Then Nebuchadnezzar 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 fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
Nebukadnetstsar (or -retstsar · proper noun, a man's name
king
מַלְכָּ֔אmal.Ka'
H4430
a king · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
astonied
תְּוַ֖הּte.Vah
H8429
to amaze · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
up
וְקָ֣םve.Kam
H6966
to rise (in various applications · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
haste
בְּהִתְבְּהָלָ֑הbe.hit.be.ha.Lah
H927
to terrify · preposition + verb, infinitive construct
spake
עָנֵ֨ה'a.Neh
H6032
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
said
וְאָמַ֜רve.'a.Mar
H560
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
counsellors
לְהַדָּֽבְר֗וֹהִיle.ha.da.ve.Ro.hi
H1907
a vizier · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
not
הֲלָא֩ha.La'
H3809
not (the simple or abs. negation) · interrogative particle + negative particle
cast
רְמֵ֤ינָאre.Mei.na'
H7412
to throw · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common plural
three
תְּלָתָ֜אte.la.Ta'
H8532
three or third · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
men
גֻבְרִ֨יןguv.Rin
H1400
a person · noun, common masculine plural absolute
bound
מְכַפְּתִ֔יןme.kha.pe.Tin
H3729
to fetter · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
midst
לְגוֹאle.goy'-
H1459
the middle · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
fire
נוּרָא֙nu.Ra'
H5135
fire · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
answered
עָנַ֤יִן'a.Na.yin
H6032
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
said
וְאָמְרִין֙ve.'a.me.Rin
H560
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
king
לְמַלְכָּ֔אle.mal.Ka'
H4430
a king · preposition + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
True
יַצִּיבָ֖אya.tzi.Va'
H3330
fixed · adjective, feminine singular absolute
king
מַלְכָּֽאmal.Ka'
H4430
a king · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Daniel 6:7 All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a…
Daniel 6:22 My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me;…
1 Samuel 17:55 And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Ab…
Daniel 3:2-3 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsello…
Daniel 3:9-10 They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever.
Daniel 3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Daniel 4:22 It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of t…
Daniel 4:27 Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 3:19-27
In these verses we have,
I. The casting of these three faithful servants of God into the fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar had himself known and owned so much of the true God that, one would have thought, though his pride and vanity induced him to make this golden image, and set it up to be worshipped, yet what these young men now said (whom he had formerly found to be wiser than all his wise men) would revive his convictions, and at least engage him to excuse them; but it proved quite otherwise. 1. Instead of being convinced by what they said, he was exasperated, and made more outrageous, Dan 3:19. It made him full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against these men. Note, Brutish…
True, O king--God extorted this confession from His enemies' own mouths.
Adam Clarke on Daniel 3:23
And these three men - fell down bound - There is a most evident want of connection between this and the following verse; and it is between these verses that the apocryphal Song of the Three Children, as it is called, has been inserted by St. Jerome and others; but with this note: Quae sequuntur in Hebraeis voluminibus non reperi; "What follows I have not found in the Hebrew books." And then begins, "They walked in the midst of the flame, praising God, and blessing the Lord." The Septuagint and Arabic read the twenty-fourth verse thus: "Then Nebuchadnezzar heard them singing praise, and was astonished." To connect the two verses Houbigant adds two verses found in the Vulgate, which are the fo…
Then Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, At the burning of those that cast the three men into the furnace, as Jacchiades; or he might be seized with a panic, and his spirits filled with fear and dread, the word (u) is by some said to signify, and this from the immediate hand of God:
and rose up in haste; from the place where he was, and went to the mouth of the furnace, to see what was become of those that were cast into it:
and spake and said unto his counsellors; who had advised him to do what he had done, out of envy and ill will to these Jews:
did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? that is, was there not an order of council for it? and was it not done according to it?…
The Church Fathers
Verses 24-25. "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and hastily arose and said to his nobles: 'Did we not cast three men in shackles into the midst of the fire?'" After the princes have been punished, the king is rebuked, in order that he may glorify God while still alive. But he questions his nobles, by whose accusation and plot he had cast the three youths into the fiery furnace, so that when they reply that they had cast three youths into the furnace, he might announce and show forth to them (what had happened). "And they said to the king in reply, 'Truly, O king!' The king answered (the Vulgate omits "the king"): 'Behold, I see four men unbound and walking about in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the appearance of the fourth man is the likeness of a son of God.'" Let me say again, how wise was the fire and how indescribable the power of God! Their bodies had been bound with chains; those chains were burnt up, whereas the bodies themselves were not burnt. As for the appearance of the fourth man, which he asserts to be like that of a son of God, either we must take him to be an angel, as the Septuagint has rendered it, or indeed, as the majority think, the Lord our Savior. Yet I do not know how an ungodly king could have merited a vision of the Son of God. On that reasoning one should follow Symmachus, who has thus interpreted it: "But the appearance of the fourth is like unto the sons," not unto the sons of God but unto gods themselves. We are to think of angels here, who after all are very frequently called gods as well as sons of God. So much for the story itself. But as for its typical significance, this angel or son of God foreshadows our Lord Jesus Christ, who descended into the furnace of hell (Ephesians 4:9, 1 Peter 4:6), in which the souls of both sinners and of the righteous were imprisoned, in order that He might without suffering any scorching by fire or injury to His person deliver those who were held imprisoned by chains of death.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abednego — Servant of Nego=Nebo, the Chaldee name given to Azariah, one of Daniel’s three companions (Dan. 2:49). With Shadrach and Meshach, he was delivered from the burning fiery furnace (3:12-30).
Meshach — The title given to Mishael, one of the three Hebrew youths who were under training at the Babylonian court for the rank of Magi (Dan. 1:7; 2:49; 3:12-30). This was probably the name of some Chaldean…
Nebuchadnezzar — In the Babylonian orthography Nabu-kudur-uzur, which means “Nebo, protect the crown!” or the “frontiers.” In an inscription he styles himself “Nebo’s favourite.” He was the son and successor of…
Abed-Nego · .A Jewish — .A Jewish
Coercion · RELIGIOUS — RELIGIOUS
Furnace · into, by Nebuchadnezzar — into, by Nebuchadnezzar
Indictments · .Three Hebrew — .Three Hebrew
Meshach · A name given by the chief eu — A name given by the chief eu
Mishael · .Thrown into the fiery furnace — .Thrown into the fiery furnace
Persecution · Spirit of — Exemplified: Chaldeans — Spirit of — Exemplified: Chaldeans
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Daniel 3:24-25
24. Then Nebchadnezzar 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 fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
24. Tunc Nebuchadnezer rex contremuit, [192] et surrexit in festinatione, celeriter: loquutus est, et dixit consiliariis suis: [193] An non viros tres projecimus in fornacem ligatos? vinctos. Responderunt, et dixerunt regi, Vere, rex.
25. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
25. Respondit, et dixit, Atqui ego video viros quatuor solutos,…
The king, who sat watching the issue of the matter, looked through the door into the furnace, and observed that the three who had been cast into it bound, walked about freed from their bonds and unhurt; and, in truth, he saw not the three only, but also a fourth, "like to a son of the gods," beside them. At this sight he was astonished and terrified. He hastily stood up; and having assured himself by a consultation with his counsellors that three men had indeed been cast bound into the furnace, while he saw four walking in the midst of it, he approached the mouth of the furnace and cried to the three to come forth. They immediately came out, and were inspected by the assembled officers of st…
In the Greek version and the Latin Vulgate, The Prayer of Azariah and The Song of the Three Jews are inserted after 3:23 (see Daniel Book Introduction, “Author and Date”).
Rashi on Daniel 3:24
was bewildered Aram. תְּוַהּ, wondered.
and stood up in haste Aram. וְקָם בְּהִתְבְּהָלָה.
answered and said Aram. עָנַיִן וְאָמְרִין They answered and said to the king.
The king is true Aram. יַצִיבָא מַלְכָּא The king has spoken the truth.
