Daniel 3:1

World English Bible (2000)

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

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

נְבוּכַדְנֶצַּ֣ר מַלְכָּ֗א עֲבַד֙ צְלֵ֣ם דִּֽי־דְהַ֔ב רוּמֵהּ֙ אַמִּ֣ין שִׁתִּ֔ין פְּתָיֵ֖הּ אַמִּ֣ין שִׁ֑ת אֲקִימֵהּ֙ בְּבִקְעַ֣ת דּוּרָ֔א בִּמְדִינַ֖ת בָּבֶֽל׃

Transliteration

Nəbûḵaḏneṣṣar malkāʾ ʿăḇaḏ ṣəlēm dî-ḏəhaḇ rûmēh ʾammîn šittîn pəṯāyēh ʾammîn šiṯ ʾăqîmēh bəḇiqʿaṯ dûrāʾ bimḏînaṯ bāḇel

Grammar Details

• *Nəbûḵaḏneṣṣar*: proper noun, subject
• *malkāʾ*: noun, masculine singular emphatic - the king
• *ʿăḇaḏ*: verb, perfect, 3rd masculine singular - made/did
• *ṣəlēm*: noun, masculine singular construct - image/statue
• *dî-ḏəhaḇ*: relative particle + noun - of gold
• *rûmēh*: noun, masculine singular + 3rd masculine singular suffix - its height
• *ʾammîn*: noun, feminine plural - cubits
• *šittîn*: numeral - sixty
• *pəṯāyēh*: noun, masculine singular + 3rd masculine singular suffix - its width
• *šiṯ*: numeral - six
• *ʾăqîmēh*: verb, perfect, 3rd masculine singular + 3rd masculine singular suffix - he set it up
• *bəḇiqʿaṯ*: preposition + noun, feminine singular construct - in the plain of
• *dûrāʾ*: proper noun - Dura
• *bimḏînaṯ*: preposition + noun, feminine singular construct - in the province of
• *bāḇel*: proper noun - Babylon

Word Meanings

• *ṣəlēm*: image/statue/idol
• *ʿăḇaḏ*: made/created/fashioned
• *ʾăqîmēh*: set up/erected/established

Referenced Verses

• Isa 46:6 : 6 Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down--yes, they worship.
• Jer 16:20 : 20 Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?
• Hab 2:19 : 19 Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' or to the mute stone, 'Arise!' Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in its midst.
• Hos 8:4 : 4 They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I didn't approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off.
• Isa 40:19-31 : 19 A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. 20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved. 21 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless. 24 They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. 25 "To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking. 27 Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?" 28 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. 30 Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; 31 But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
• Acts 17:29 : 29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
• Acts 19:26 : 26 You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.
• 1 Kgs 12:28 : 28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"
• Ps 115:4-8 : 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 5 They have mouths, but they don't speak. They have eyes, but they don't see. 6 They have ears, but they don't hear. They have noses, but they don't smell. 7 They have hands, but they don't feel. They have feet, but they don't walk, neither do they speak through their throat. 8 Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
• Ps 135:15 : 15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
• Isa 2:20 : 20 In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
• Isa 30:22 : 22 You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, "Go away!"
• Exod 20:23 : 23 You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves.
• Exod 32:31 : 31 Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.
• Deut 7:25 : 25 You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
• Jer 10:9 : 9 There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men.
• Dan 2:31-32 : 31 You, O king, saw, and behold, a great image. This image, which was mighty, and whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and its aspect was awesome. 32 As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass,
• Dan 2:48 : 48 Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him many great gifts, and made him to rule over the whole province of Babylon, and to be chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon.
• Dan 5:23 : 23 but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which don't see, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified.
• Rev 9:20 : 20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn't repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.
• Dan 3:30 : 30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
• 2 Kgs 19:17-18 : 17 Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.
• Esth 1:1 : 1 Now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces),
• Judg 8:26-27 : 26 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks. 27 Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.
• Exod 32:2-4 : 2 Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me." 3 All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."