Daniel 3:2 Commentary and Bible Study

The image has been some time in the making and in setting up. This is a carefully thought-out occasion. Now that it is ready, all the high officials of the land are commanded to come. The entire empire and its officials are going to be represented at the dedication of the image. Nebuchadnezzar wants them all there to worship this image, for the entire empire must be subject to the will of the king, and there must be no man, woman, or child who does not recognise his supremacy over them in every area of life. The princes would probably have been the regional governors. It’s difficult to be precise with these terms: princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, councillors, sheriffs – all the principal officials of the provinces. The point is that anyone of any significance was there. There must have been hundreds of them – some people say two hundred; others say a thousand, which is probably nearer the mark – from throughout the empire, and they are brought to Babylon for the dedication of the image. No one who had been invited would dare to be absent, for their absence would be treated as a mark of sedition, and there would be consequences. This is going to satisfy the ego of Nebuchadnezzar: to have the statue which is associated with him and his rule and his power and success, and thousands of his principal princes, rulers standing in front of it. This is all a piece of satire on the part of Daniel, as the inspired author. We might think this is a touch on the primitive side, but it isn’t, because in all the court documents this paraphernalia of going through all the names repeatedly, added a sense of grandness – that was the idea. Decrees had to be uttered in full, and so it seems that Daniel, when under inspiration he later writes up the record, does so with gentle satire, with a kind of parody of the very thing that would happen. The person who would announce what was going to happen would go solemnly through all the officers and all the instruments repeatedly every time. It is to give you a flavour of court and what it was like and how the buildup was achieved and the atmosphere was sustained. Everybody was there, and they stood before the image, waiting for the cue to prostrate themselves.