Daniel 3:4-7

The musical instruments referred to (Daniel 3:5; Daniel 3:7) also have Persian names. [Note: Archer, A Survey . . ., p. 375; K. A. Kitchen, "The Aramaic in Daniel," in Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel, p. 43; T. C. Mitchell and R. Joyce, "The Musical Instruments in Nebuchadnezzar’s Orchestra," in Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel, pp. 19-27.] Some of these instruments were Greek as well. The Greeks had an influence on Babylonia earlier than Daniel’s time. [Note: W. F. Albright, From Stone Age to Christianity, p. 259; E. M. Yamauchi, Greece and Babylon, pp. 17-24; Leupold, p. 143.] These were various wind and stringed instruments. [Note: For a full description of each, see Mitchell and Joyce, pp. 19-27; Leupold, pp. 144-45; Keil, pp. 122-24; and Charles H. Dyer, "The Musical Instruments in Daniel 3," Bibliotheca Sacra 147:588 (October-December 1990):426-36.] The Babylonians seem to have been an almost music-crazed culture (cf. Psalms 137:3; Isaiah 14:11). [Note: See Ironside, pp. 48-50, for interesting insights into spurious and real music in worship.]

"The story of the three young men who were thrown into the fire because they would not worship the image (Daniel 3), brings to mind the great brick-kilns outside the city, where the bricks required for certain purposes in the vast building projects of Nebuchadnezzar were baked. Some of these great ovens were found in the [archaeological] excavations. Worth noting in this connection is a rather Solomonic judicial directive of the ruler Rim Sin (1750 B.C.), which appears in a recently published document of the Yale Babylonian Collection. He speaks thus concerning four men of Larsa: ’Because they threw a young slave into an oven, throw ye a slave into a furnace.’ Clearly, that sort of thing was nothing new in Babylonia." [Note: E. G. Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas, p. 323. See also J. B. Alexander, "New Light on the Fiery Furnace," Journal of Biblical Literature 69:4 (December 1950):375-76.]

Other authorities believed the furnace was beehive or funnel-shaped and was constructed of metal. [Note: See Goldingay, p. 70.]

In the Tribulation, the Antichrist will command everyone to worship him and his image (Revelation 13:3-18).