Daniel 3:1
King Nabuchodonosor made a statue of gold, of sixty cubits high, and six cubits broad, and he set it up in the plain of Dura of the province of Babylon.
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The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Nabuchodonosor rex fecit statuam auream, altitudine cubitorum sexaginta, latitudine cubitorum sex, et statuit eam in campo Dura, provinciæ Babylonis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ⸂⸆⸃ Ἔτους ὀκτωκαιδεκάτου Ναβουχοδονοσὸρ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐποίησεν εἰκόνα χρυσῆν, ὕψος αὐτῆς πήχεων ἑξήκοντα, εὖρος αὐτῆς πήχεων ἕξ· καὶ ἔστησεν αὐτὴν ἐν πεδίῳ Δεειρὰ ἐν χώρᾳ Βαβυλῶνος.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- נְבוּכַדְנֶצַּ֣ר מַלְכָּ֗א עֲבַד֙ צְלֵ֣ם דִּֽי דְהַ֔ב רוּמֵהּ֙ אַמִּ֣ין שִׁתִּ֔ין פְּתָיֵ֖הּ אַמִּ֣ין שִׁ֑ת אֲקִימֵהּ֙ בְּבִקְעַ֣ת דּוּרָ֔א בִּמְדִינַ֖ת בָּבֶֽל
Haydock's commentary
Statue. It was not the figure of a man, (Calmet) the dimensions 90 feet high and 9 broad (Worthington) being disproportionate; though a man might be represented on the pillar. Some take it for Nabolpolassar, (Calmet) or for the king himself. (St. Jerome) (Worthington)
But he never complains of the injury shewn to his own person, and therefore it probably was meant for Bel, the chief god, chap. iv. 5., and xiv. 1. This nation adored statues, Baruch vi. 3. The Persians worshipped only the elements. (Calmet)
Ochus first set up the statue of the goddess Tanais or Anais. (Clem. Protr.)
Dura. Septuagint, "enclosed." (St. Jerome)
This happened towards the end of the king's reign, (ver. 98, &c.) of course the three young men might be about fifty years old. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Hippolytus On Daniel, Section III
Chap. iii. 1 “In the eighteenth year,” etc. (These words are wanting in the Vulgate, etc.) A considerable space of time having elapsed, therefore, and the eighteenth year being now in its course, the king, calling to mind his vision, “made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits.” For as the blessed Daniel, in interpreting the vision, had answered the king, saying, “Thou art this head of gold in the image,” the king, being puffed up with this address, and elated in heart, made a copy of this image, in order that he might be worshipped by all as God.
St John Chrysostom The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians, Ephesians 4:1,2
Let us learn not to sink under affliction, nor to repine; for look at this blessed saint. He had been scourged, and sorely scourged, for it is said, “When they had laid many stripes upon them.” He had been bound too, and that again sorely, for the jailor cast him into the inner ward, and with extraordinary security. And though he was in so many perils, at midnight, when even the most wakeful are asleep with sleep, another and a stronger bond upon them, they chanted and sang praise unto the Lord. What can be more adamantine than these souls? They bethought them how that the holy Children sang even in fire and furnace. ( Dan. iii. 1-30 .) Perhaps they thus reasoned with themselves, “we have as yet suffered nothing like that.”