BOOK 27 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Daniel 3

Daniel book home•Chapter 3 of 12•30 verses

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Daniel 3 Overview

Nebuchadnezzar commands officials to worship a golden image, but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse. They are thrown into an overheated furnace, a fourth figure appears with them, they emerge unharmed, and the king publicly honors their God.

DanielBook

3Chapter

30Verses

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Before you read Daniel 3

Coming from

Daniel 2 ended with Nebuchadnezzar acknowledging Daniel’s God after the dream of the great image. Chapter 3 shows that such acknowledgment did not mean the king had abandoned idolatrous claims or coercive imperial worship.

In this chapter

Leads into

Nebuchadnezzar himself becomes the subject of another warning dream. Daniel interprets a great tree as the king and announces a period of humiliation meant to teach him that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The three men do not know that God will certainly deliver them from the furnace; their faithfulness does not depend on a guaranteed favorable outcome. Their statement includes both confidence in God’s ability and willingness to obey even if He does not rescue them from death.

The identity of the fourth figure is described first by Nebuchadnezzar in pagan royal language and later as an angel sent by God. The text certainly teaches divine presence and deliverance; claims beyond that should be made carefully.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Worship belongs to God above the state

The king’s command cannot make idolatry righteous, even when backed by law and lethal force.

Faithfulness is not conditional on deliverance

The three men obey whether or not God chooses to preserve their lives.

God can overturn the sentence of rulers

The furnace designed to destroy the men becomes the setting in which God publicly vindicates them.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Exodus 20

The refusal to worship the image fits Israel’s covenant prohibition against other gods and carved images.

Acts 5:29

The apostles later state the same basic priority when human commands directly conflict with obedience to God.

Hebrews 11:34

The faith chapter recalls those who “quenched the violence of fire,” naturally including this kind of deliverance.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not promise that faithful believers will always escape physical harm.

The men themselves do not demand rescue, and Hebrews 11 also remembers faithful people who suffered and died.

Do not force a precise Christological identification of the fourth figure beyond the text.

God’s supernatural presence and angelic deliverance are clear; the narrative does not require a dogmatic identification of the figure as a preincarnate appearance of Christ.

Read Daniel 3 watching for…

The universal pressure to conform to the king’s worship command.

The three men’s answer before they know the outcome.

Who is harmed by the furnace and who is not.

The fourth figure in the fire and the king’s later reference to God’s angel.

How the king’s decree changes after the deliverance.

Chapter outline5 sections

1-7Nebuchadnezzar sets up the golden image and commands everyone to worship at the sound of music 8-18Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego are accused and refuse to worship the image even under threat of fire 19-23The king furiously orders the furnace heated and the three men are cast in bound 24-27Nebuchadnezzar sees four men walking unharmed in the fire, and the three servants come out untouched 28-30The king blesses their God, forbids speaking against him, and promotes the three men

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellers, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellers, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,

That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:

And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews.

They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever.

Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship the golden image:

And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king.

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

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.

But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellers, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.

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.

Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.

And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellers, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.

Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.