Daniel 3:2

2 Le roi Nebucadnetsar fit convoquer les satrapes, les intendants et les gouverneurs, les grands juges, les trésoriers, les jurisconsultes, les juges, et tous les magistrats des provinces, pour qu'ils se rendissent à la dédicace de la statue qu'avait élevée le roi Nebucadnetsar.

Daniel 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 3:2

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the
princes
He sent letters, or dispatched messengers, into the several provinces of his empire, and parts of his dominions, to convene all the peers of his realm, and governors of provinces, and all officers, civil, military, and religious, expressed by various names and titles: the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the
counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces;
who are particularly and distinctly designed is not easy to say. Jacchiades thinks they answer to the same offices and officers which now obtain in the Turkish empire; princes are the "bashaws"; governors the "beglerbegs"; captains the "agas" of the janizaries; judges the "kadies"; treasurers the "dephterdaries"; the counsellors the "alphakies"; and "zayties the sheriffs"; their chief doctors their "muphties", as L'Empereur; and the rulers of the provinces the "zangiakies" or "viziers"; but, be they who they will, they were the principal men of the empire, both in things civil, military, and ecclesiastic, who were ordered to come to the dedication of the image, which Nebuchadnezzar the king
had set up;
for though it was made and set up, it was not a proper object of worship till dedicated; and which was done by burning incense, blowing trumpets now these great men were gathered together on this occasion, because of the greater honour done hereby to the king and his image; and also by their example to engage the populace the more easily to the worship of it; and likewise as being the representatives of them since they could not all be collected together in one place; and it may be it was done, as some think, to ensnare Daniel and his companions. Philostratus ^F6 makes mention of an officer at Babylon that had the keeping of the great gate into the city; which some take to be the same with the first sort here mentioned; who first offered the golden statue of the king to be worshipped before he would permit any to enter into the city, which perhaps might take its rise from the worship of this golden image.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F6 De Vita Apollonii, l. 1. c. 19.

Daniel 3:2 In-Context

1 Le roi Nebucadnetsar fit une statue d'or, haute de soixante coudées et large de six coudées. Il la dressa dans la vallée de Dura, dans la province de Babylone.

2 Le roi Nebucadnetsar fit convoquer les satrapes, les intendants et les gouverneurs, les grands juges, les trésoriers, les jurisconsultes, les juges, et tous les magistrats des provinces, pour qu'ils se rendissent à la dédicace de la statue qu'avait élevée le roi Nebucadnetsar.

3 Alors les satrapes, les intendants et les gouverneurs, les grands juges, les trésoriers, les jurisconsultes, les juges, et tous les magistrats des provinces, s'assemblèrent pour la dédicace de la statue qu'avait élevée le roi Nebucadnetsar. Ils se placèrent devant la statue qu'avait élevée Nebucadnetsar.

4 Un héraut cria à haute voix: Voici ce qu'on vous ordonne, peuples, nations, hommes de toutes langues!

5 Au moment où vous entendrez le son de la trompette, du chalumeau, de la guitare, de la sambuque, du psaltérion, de la cornemuse, et de toutes sortes d'instruments de musique, vous vous prosternerez et vous adorerez la statue d'or qu'a élevée le roi Nebucadnetsar.