After having greatly honored Daniel in the manner treated above, the king later made and set up a colossal image. He then summoned a vast number of civil officials to come to the dedication of his image.

At the dedication, he commanded a herald to proclaim the following:

Daniel 3:5 That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:

All the people present except for Daniel’s three Hebrew friends obeyed the king’s command and fell down and worshiped the image.

Some say that we can only say with certainty that what the people did to honor the image is whatever the text says and nothing more. On that reading, all that we can say is that the people fell down before the image and worshiped it, but we cannot say anything else with certainty about the nature of what they did.

To understand why this approach to interpreting Daniel 3:5 is wrong, we must compare it closely with Daniel 2:46.

A Vitally Illuminating Comparison

Comparing Daniel 2:46 with Daniel 3:5, we find that both verses use the same Aramaic verbs to speak of honoring someone or something by falling down and worshiping him or it. Daniel 2:46 goes beyond speaking of falling down and worshiping because it speaks also of making offerings to a man to honor him.

If we can only say with certainty whatever the texts say, we would have to hold that Nebuchadnezzar bestowed greater honor on Daniel than on his golden image because Daniel 2:46 teaches that Neb. commanded people to offer an oblation and sweet odors to Daniel but there is no mention of such offerings being offered to his golden image in Daniel 3.