Verse 1

Daniel’s Friends Are Tested King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made. It was 90 feet tall and nine feet wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Referenced Verses

  • Isa 46:6 : 6 Those who empty out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scale hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god. They then bow down and worship it.
  • Jer 16:20 : 20 Can people make their own gods? No, what they make are not gods at all.”
  • Hab 2:19 : 19 Woe to the one who says to wood,‘Wake up!’– he who says to speechless stone,‘Awake!’ Can it give reliable guidance? It is overlaid with gold and silver; it has no life’s breath inside it.
  • Hos 8:4 : 4 The Political and Cultic Sin of Israel They enthroned kings without my consent! They appointed princes without my approval! They made idols out of their silver and gold, but they will be destroyed!
  • Isa 40:19-31 : 19 A craftsman casts an idol; a metalsmith overlays it with gold and forges silver chains for it. 20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; he then seeks a skilled craftsman to make an idol that will not fall over. 21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you since the very beginning? Have you not understood from the time the earth’s foundations were made? 22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, and spreads it out like a pitched tent. 23 He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing; he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant. 24 Indeed, they are barely planted; yes, they are barely sown; yes, they barely take root in the earth, and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up, and the wind carries them away like straw. 25 “To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?” says the Holy One. 26 Look up at the sky! Who created all these heavenly lights? He is the one who leads out their ranks; he calls them all by name. Because of his absolute power and awesome strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you say, Jacob, Why do you say, Israel,“The LORD is not aware of what is happening to me, My God is not concerned with my vindication”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is an eternal God, the Creator of the whole earth. He does not get tired or weary; there is no limit to his wisdom. 29 He gives strength to those who are tired; to the ones who lack power, he gives renewed energy. 30 Even youths get tired and weary; even strong young men clumsily stumble. 31 But those who wait for the LORD’s help find renewed strength; they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, they run without growing weary, they walk without getting tired.
  • Acts 17:29 : 29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination.
  • Acts 19:26 : 26 And you see and hear that this Paul has persuaded and turned away a large crowd, not only in Ephesus but in practically all of the province of Asia, by saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all.
  • 1 Kgs 12:28 : 28 After the king had consulted with his advisers, he made two golden calves. Then he said to the people,“It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
  • Ps 115:4-8 : 4 Their idols are made of silver and gold– they are man-made. 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see, 6 ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell, 7 hands, but cannot touch, feet, but cannot walk. They cannot even clear their throats. 8 Those who make them will end up like them, as will everyone who trusts in them.
  • Ps 135:15 : 15 The nations’ idols are made of silver and gold, they are man-made.
  • Isa 2:20 : 20 At that time men will throw their silver and gold idols, which they made for themselves to worship, into the caves where rodents and bats live,
  • Isa 30:22 : 22 You will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away as if they were a menstrual rag, saying to them,“Get out!”
  • Exod 20:23 : 23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, nor make gods of gold for yourselves.
  • Exod 32:31 : 31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said,“Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, and they have made for themselves gods of gold.
  • Deut 7:25 : 25 You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the LORD your God.
  • Jer 10:9 : 9 Hammered-out silver is brought from Tarshish and gold is brought from Ufaz to cover those idols. They are the handiwork of carpenters and goldsmiths. They are clothed in blue and purple clothes. They are all made by skillful workers.
  • Dan 2:31-32 : 31 “You, O king, were watching as a great statue– one of impressive size and extraordinary brightness– was standing before you. Its appearance caused alarm. 32 As for that statue, its head was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs were of bronze.
  • Dan 2:48 : 48 Then the king elevated Daniel to high position and bestowed on him many marvelous gifts. He granted him authority over the entire province of Babylon and made him the main prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.
  • Dan 5:23 : 23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone– gods that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control your very breath and all your ways!
  • Rev 9:20 : 20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood– idols that cannot see or hear or walk about.
  • Dan 3:30 : 30 Then Nebuchadnezzar promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
  • 2 Kgs 19:17-18 : 17 It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. 18 They have burned the gods of the nations, for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.
  • Esth 1:1 : 1 ¶ The King Throws a Lavish Party The following events happened in the days of Ahasuerus.(I am referring to that Ahasuerus who used to rule over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces extending all the way from India to Ethiopia.)
  • Judg 8:26-27 : 26 The total weight of the gold earrings he requested came to seventeen hundred gold shekels. This was in addition to the crescent-shaped ornaments, jewelry, purple clothing worn by the Midianite kings, and the necklaces on the camels. 27 Gideon used all this to make an ephod, which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.
  • Exod 32:2-4 : 2 So Aaron said to them,“Break off the gold earrings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people broke off the gold earrings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He accepted the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. Then they said,“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”