Bible Strands
Daniel 3:1
King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nebuchadnezzar acts as king; the moment is the fabrication and erection of a golden image on the plain of Dura.
The words — עבד ('a.Vad), "he made," is the root of service and labor (H5648); the image is presented as the product of toil, not inspiration.
The thread — Jeremiah 16:20, Habakkuk 2:19, and Isaiah 46:6 all frame image-making as a human act that yields a silent, mute object, not a god.
Why it lands — The verse asks the reader to hold the statue as what it is: a thing made by hands and set up by decree, before the narrative reveals what that decree will cost.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 16:20 Can man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!”
- Habakkuk 2:19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”
- Isaiah 46:6 They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship.
- Hosea 8:4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.
- Isaiah 40:19 To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains?
- Acts 17:29 Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
- Acts 19:26 And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, this Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.
- Psalms 135:15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
- 1 Kings 12:28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
- 2 Kings 19:17 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands.