Bible Strands
Daniel 3:2
Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other officials of the provinces to attend the dedication of the statue he had set up.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — King Nebuchadnezzar issues a royal decree to provincial officials to gather at the plain of Dura for the dedication of a golden statue he erected.
The words — The Hebrew verb שְׁלַח (she.Lach) means "he sent," establishing the assembly as a commanded mobilization rather than a voluntary gathering.
The thread — This administrative summons parallels the official assembly in Daniel 3:27 and follows the pattern of state-organized worship noted in Exodus 32:4 and Numbers 25:2.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that political power is being leveraged to enforce public ritual compliance, requiring a reader to assess where loyalty to the state ends and fidelity to God begins.
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
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Cross-references
- Daniel 3:27 and when the satraps, prefects, governors, and royal advisers had gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men. Not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them.
- Exodus 32:4 He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
- Numbers 25:2 who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.
- Judges 16:23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.”
- 1 Kings 12:32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up, and he installed priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.
- Proverbs 29:12 If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials will be wicked.
- Daniel 6:1 Now it pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom,
- Daniel 6:6 So the administrators and satraps went together to the king and said, “O King Darius, may you live forever!
- Revelation 17:2 The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”