Daniel 3:5-7

3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, 1  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must 2  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected. 3:6 Whoever does not bow down and pay homage will immediately 3  be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire!” 3:7 Therefore when they all 4  heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, 5  and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and language groups began bowing down and paying homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected.

Daniel 3:10

3:10 You have issued an edict, O king, that everyone must bow down and pay homage to the golden statue when they hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music.

Daniel 3:15

3:15 Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must bow down and pay homage to the statue that I had made. If you don’t pay homage to it, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. Now, who is that god who can rescue you from my power?” 6 

Daniel 3:18

3:18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”

Daniel 3:28

3:28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, 7  “Praised be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent forth his angel 8  and has rescued his servants who trusted in him, ignoring 9  the edict of the king and giving up their bodies rather than 10  serve or pay homage to any god other than their God!

1 sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.

2 tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

3 tn Aram “in that hour.”

4 tn Aram “all the peoples.”

5 tc Though not in the Aramaic text of BHS, this word appears in many medieval Hebrew MSS, some LXX MSS, and Vulgate. Cf. vv. 5, 10, 15.

6 tn Aram “hand.” So also in v. 17.

7 tn Aram “answered and said.”

8 sn The king identifies the “son of the gods” (v. 25) as an angel. Comparable Hebrew expressions are used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for the members of God’s angelic assembly (see Gen 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Pss 29:1; 89:6). An angel later comes to rescue Daniel from the lions (Dan 6:22).

9 tn Aram “they changed” or “violated.”

10 tn Aram “so that they might not.”