What Does Daniel 3:14 Mean in the King James?

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

Daniel 3:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The king is not asking whether they admire an image; he is asking whether they will give their service and their bodies to an authority that made its own object of worship.

THE MEANING

The king’s challenge turns loyalty into a visible act: serve his gods and bow before an image he himself has erected. Power claims that what it establishes should receive allegiance. The verse speaks wherever a public demand tries to make outward compliance the proof of inward loyalty.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A ruler’s power to set up an image does not make that image worthy of allegiance.

THE ROOT

סָגְדִין

sāgədīn

GROWS FROM

סגד

To bow down or prostrate oneself.

“worship” in this verse is sāgədīn. The verse’s Aramaic word ⁨סָגְדִין⁩ (sāgədīn, bowing down) names a bodily act, not only an inward attitude. It is paired with ⁨פָּלְחִין⁩ (pālḥīn, serving): allegiance appears both as ongoing service and as the body’s bow before the king’s image.

ALSO GROWS

ləmisgad: To bow down, to worship.

לְמִסְגַּד

This infinitive form appears in Daniel 3:5; it carries the same root consonants ⁨סגד⁩ and makes the demanded act explicit.

sāgədīn: They were bowing down, worshipping.

סָגְדִין

This participial form appears in Daniel 3:7; it shows the root describing the enacted posture the king demands.

THE PATTERN

Political power often tests allegiance by demanding both service and a visible bow.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Exodus 20:5 · KJVThe command pairs bowing with service, exposing both as visible forms of allegiance.

But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Daniel 3:18 · KJVThe three friends refuse the paired demands of service and bowing, even under the king’s threat.

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Matthew 4:10 · KJVJesus names worship and service as belonging together, and directs both toward God alone.

THE THREAD

Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

Daniel 3:28 · KJV

The paired actions of service and bowing reappear in the account of what the three friends refuse: they will neither serve nor worship any god but their own. The king’s question in verse 14 is the pressure point; this verse shows the answer made visible in their bodies.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us