How tall was nebuchadnezzars image

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose hight was sixty cubits, and the breadth of it six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold - It is supposed that the history given here did not occur till the close, or near the end, of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

For it was after his insanity, as we see Daniel , and this happened near the close of his reign. The authorized version, which is followed in the margin, fixes the date of this event seventeen years earlier, and ten years before the king's insanity. A few observations on this image may be necessary: - 1.

It is not likely that this image was in human form - the dimensions show the improbability of this; for what proportion is there between sixty cubits ninety feet in length, and six cubits nine feet in breadth? It is not likely that this image was all of gold; for this would have required more of this precious metal than the whole province of Babylon could produce; for as I suppose the sixty cubits apply to the perpendicular altitude, so I take it for granted that the six cubits intend the diameter.

Now a column of gold of this height in diameter, upon the supposition that the pillar was circular, contains five thousand seven hundred and twenty-five and a half cubic feet; and as there are nineteen thousand avoirdupois ounces in a cubic foot, the weight of the whole pillar would be eight million two hundred and sixty-two thousand eight hundred and six pounds, ten ounces of gold.

It might have been a pillar on which an image of the god Bel was erected. The image itself might be of gold, or more probably gilt, that is, covered with thin plates of gold, and on this account it might be called the golden image; and most probably the height of the image may be confounded with the height of the pillar. Or perhaps it was no more than a pillar, on the sides of which their gods and sacred emblems were engraven, surmounted with Bel on the top.

The plain of Dura - The situation of this place is not exactly known; there was a town or city called Dura, or Doura, in Mesopotamia, near the Tigris. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold - The time when he did this is not mentioned; nor is it stated in whose honor, or for what design, this colossal image was erected.

In the Greek and Arabic translationns, this is said to have occurred in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. This is not, however, in the original text, nor is it known on what authority it is asserted.

Dean Prideaux Consex. If this is the correct account of the time, the event here recorded occurred b. Hales makes the chronology somewhat different, though not essentially. According to him, Daniel was carried to Babylon b. Calmet makes the captivity of Daniel years before Christ; the interpretation of the dream ; and the setting up of the image - thus making an interval of more than forty years. It is impossible to determine the time with certainty; but allowing the shortest-mentioned period as the interval between the interpretation of the dream Daniel 2 and the erection of this statue, the time would be sufficient to account for the fact that the impression made by that event on the mind of Nebuchadnezzar, in favor of the claims of the true God Daniel , seems to have been entirely effaced.

The two chapters, in order that the right impression may be received on this point, should be read with the recollection that such an interval had elapsed. At the time when the event here recorded is supposed by Prideaux to have occurred, Nebuchadnezzar had just returned from finishing the Jewish war.

From the spoils which he had taken in that expedition in Syria and Palestine, he had the means in abundance of rearing such a colossal statue; and at the close of these conquests, nothing would be more natural than that he should wish to rear in his capital some splendid work of art that would signalize his reign, record the memory of his conquests, and add to the magnificence of the city. It is not necessary to suppose that it was of solid gold, for the amount required for such a structure would have been immense, and probably beyond the means even of Nebuchadnezzar.

The presumption is, that it was merely covered over with plates of gold, for this was the usual manner in which statues erected in honor of the gods were made. See Isaiah It is not known in honor of whom this statue was erected. Grotius supposed that it was reared to the memory of Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, and observes that it was customary to erect statues in this manner in honor of parents.

Prideaux, Hales, the editor of the "Pict. Bible," and most others, suppose that it was in honor of Bel, the principal deity worshipped in Babylon.

See the notes at Isaiah Some have supposed that it was in honor of Nebuchadnezzar himself, and that he purposed by it to be worshipped as a god. But this opinion has little probability in its favor. The opinion that it was in honor of Bel, the principal deity of the place, is every way the most probable, and this derives some confirmation from the well-known fact that a magnificent image of this kind was, at some period of his reign, erected by Nebuchadnezzar in honor of this god, in a style to correspond with the magnificence of the city.

See the article; Power of music. Therefore Nebuchadnezzar took music to use it to make people bow down to his kingdom. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not bow down and worship the image when the music played, and the three were cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. See the Rescue from burning fiery furnace. We see this in Revelation chapter 13 we will study more as we study the book of revelation. Rev And deceived them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Friday, November 12, Contact About. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Christian Truth Center. Golden image of Nebuchadnezzar The golden image of Nebuchadnezzar presents many life lessons.

He then gave Daniel many gifts and made him the ruler of the whole province of Babylon. Rebelling God Twenty years passed and Nebuchadnezzar does what most of us have tendencies of doing. Threescore cubits is 60 cubits which is equivalent to 90 feets. Therefore none of these things moved them. The saving them from sinful compliance, was as great a miracle in the kingdom of grace, as the saving them out of the fiery furnace was in the kingdom of nature. Fear of man and love of the world, especially want of faith, make men yield to temptation, while a firm persuasion of the truth will deliver them from denying Christ, or being ashamed of him.

We are to be meek in our replies, but we must be decided that we will obey God rather than man. Verses Let Nebuchadnezzar heat his furnace as hot as he can, a few minutes will finish the torment of those cast into it; but hell-fire tortures, and yet does not kill. Those who worshipped the beast and his image, have no rest, no pause, no moment free from pain, revelation revelation Now was fulfilled in the letter that great promise, Isaiah , When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned.

Leaving it to that God who preserved them in the fire, to bring them out, they walked up and down in the midst, supported and encouraged by the presence of the Son of God. Those who suffer for Christ, have his presence in their sufferings, even in the fiery furnace, and in the valley of the shadow of death. Nebuchadnezzar owns them for servants of the most high God; a God able to deliver them out of his hand. It is our God only is the consuming fire, Hebrews Could we but see into the eternal world, we should behold the persecuted believer safe from the malice of his foes, while they are exposed to the wrath of God, and tormented in unquenchable fires.

Verses What God did for these his servants, would help to keep the Jews to their religion while in captivity, and to cure them of idolatry.

The miracle brought deep convictions on Nebuchadnezzar. But no abiding change then took place in his conduct. He who preserved these pious Jews in the fiery furnace, is able to uphold us in the hour of temptation, and to keep us from falling into sin.

Daniel Between the vision of Nebuchadnezzar in the second chapter and that of Daniel in the seventh, four narratives of Daniels and his friends' personal history are introduced. As the second and seventh chapters go together, so chapters the third and sixth chapters the deliverance from the lions' den , and the fourth and fifth chapters.

Of these last two pairs, the former shows God's nearness to save His saints when faithful to Him, at the very time they seem to be crushed by the world power. The second pair shows, in the case of the two kings of the first monarchy, how God can suddenly humble the world power in the height of its insolence. The latter advances from mere self-glorification, in the fourth chapter, to open opposition to God in the fifth.

Nebuchadnezzar demands homage to be paid to his image Daniel , and boasts of his power Daniel But Belshazzar goes further, blaspheming God by polluting His holy vessels. There is a similar progression in the conduct of God's people.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refuse positive homage to the image of the world power Daniel ; Daniel will not yield it even a negative homage, by omitting for a time the worship of God Daniel Jehovah's power manifested for the saints against the world in individual histories the third through sixth chapters is exhibited in the second and seventh chapters, in world-wide prophetical pictures; the former heightening the effect of the latter.

The miracles wrought in behalf of Daniel and his friends were a manifestation of God's glory in Daniel's person, as the representative of the theocracy before the Babylonian king, who deemed himself almighty, at a time when God could not manifest it in His people as a body.

They tended also to secure, by their impressive character, that respect for the covenant-people on the part of the heathen powers which issued in Cyrus' decree, not only restoring the Jews, but ascribing honor to the God of heaven, and commanding the building of the temple Ezra [AUBERLEN].

Ancient idolaters thought that each nation had its own gods, and that, in addition to these, foreign gods might be worshipped. The Jewish religion was the only exclusive one that claimed all homage for Jehovah as the only true God.

Men will in times of trouble confess God, if they are allowed to retain their favorite heart-idols. The image was that of Bel, the Babylonian tutelary god; or rather, Nebuchadnezzar himself the personification and representative of the Babylonian empire, as suggested to him by the dream Daniel , " Thou art this head of gold. The colossal size makes it likely that the frame was wood, overlaid with gold.

The "height," sixty cubits, is so out of proportion with the "breadth," exceeding it ten times, that it seems best to suppose the thickness from breast to back to be intended, which is exactly the right proportion of a well-formed man [AUGUSTINE, The City of God, PRIDEAUX thinks the sixty cubits refer to the image and pedestal together, the image being twenty-seven cubits high, or forty feet, the pedestal thirty-three cubits, or fifty feet.

It was not the same image, for the one here was on the plain of Dura, not in the city. Whatever the king approved of, they all approve of. There is no stability of principle in the ungodly. Chaldee sumponya, the modern Italian zampogna, Asiatic zambonja. No other nation but the Jews would feel this edict oppressive; for it did not prevent them worshipping their own gods besides.

It was evidently aimed at the Jews by those jealous of their high position in the king's court, who therefore induced the king to pass an edict as to all recusants, representing such refusal of homage as an act of treason to Nebuchadnezzar as civil and religious "head" of the empire.

So the edict under Darius Daniel was aimed against the Jews by those jealous of Daniel's influence. The literal image of Nebuchadnezzar is a typical prophecy of "the image of the beast," connected with mystical Babylon, in Revelation The second mystical beast there causeth the earth, and them that dwell therein, to worship the first beast, and that as many as would not, should be killed Revelation Revelation It is not necessary to suppose that the furnace was made for the occasion.

Compare "brick-kiln," 2 Samuel Any furnace for common purposes in the vicinity of Dura would serve. None of the Jews seem to have been present, except the officers, summoned specially. Not probably in general, but as Daniel states, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Why Daniel was not summoned does not appear. Probably he was in some distant part of the empire on state business, and the general summons Daniel had not time to reach him before the dedication. Also, the Jews enemies found it more politic to begin by attacking Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who were nearer at hand, and had less influence, before they proceeded to attack Daniel.

Compare the Hebrew, Numbers Numbers Notwithstanding his "fury," his past favor for them disposes him to give them the opportunity of excusing themselves on the ground that their disobedience had not been intentional; so he gives them another trial to see whether they would still worship the image.

Hesitation, or parleying with sin, is fatal; unhesitating decision is the only safety, where the path of duty is clear Matthew Matthew The sense is, If it be our lot to be cast into the furnace, our God quoted from Deuteronomy is able to deliver us a reply to Nebuchadnezzar's challenge, "Who is that God that shall deliver you? He will, we trust, literally deliver us, but certainly He will do so spiritually. Though He slay them, they will still trust in Him Job Their deliverance from sinful compliance was as great a miracle in the kingdom of grace, as that from the furnace was in the kingdom of nature.