What Does Daniel 3:1 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The king’s power appears here as the power to give an image a place and make it stand.
THE MEANING
Power gives its chosen likeness a body, dimensions, and a place in view. The gold and towering proportions make the image appear weighty, while the verb behind “set it up” makes its upright presence the decisive act. The verse speaks to the present wherever something made is positioned as though its scale alone makes it ultimate.
THE ROOT
וַאֲקִמֵהּ
waʾaqimēh
GROWS FROM
קום
qûm
To rise or stand; in this verb form, to make something stand or establish it.
The Aramaic verb וַאֲקִמֵהּ (waʾaqimēh, he set it up) comes from קוּם (qûm, rise or stand): the king causes the image to stand. Its root family also gives מָקוֹם (māqôm, place or standing place), linking an upright presence with the place it occupies.
ALSO GROWS
qûm: To rise or stand.
קוּם
The image is made to stand as a visible presence.
māqôm: A place or position.
מָקוֹם
The shared root links standing with occupying a place, as the image is set in the plain of Dura.
THE PATTERN
A fashioned image can be given apparent sacred authority when human power adorns it and sets it before others.
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.THE THREAD
Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.The same Aramaic word צְלֵם (tselem, image) names the figure in both verses. In Daniel 2:31 the image appears in the king’s vision; here, the king gives an image material form and sets it upright, moving from an image seen to an image made.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us