3. Tunc congregati sunt satrapae, duces, proceres, quaestores, magistra- (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
tus, judices, optimates, et onmes praefecti provinciarum ad dedicationem imaginis, quam erexerat Nebuchadnezer rex: et steterunt coram imagine quam erexerat Nebuchadnezer.
Let us add the context as the subject is continued Daniel 3:4-5 4. Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,
4. Et praeco clamabat in fortitudine: 169 Vobis edicitur, populi, gentes, et linguae, 170
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.
5. Simulae audieritis vocem cornu, vel, tuboe, fistulae, citharae, sambucae, psalterii, symphoniae, et omnia instrumenta musices: ut procidatis, et adoretis imaginem auream, quam erexit Nebuchadnezer rex.
I do not know of what kind these musical instruments were. Daniel 3:6-7 6. And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
6. Et quisquis non prociderit 171 et adoraverit, caderm hora, 172 projicietur in inedium fornacem ignis ardentis, vel, ardenteng.
7. Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
7. Itaque simulatque, aedem hora atque, audierint omnes populi vocem cornu, fistulea, citharea, sambucae, psalterii et omniurm instrumentorum musices, prociderunt omnes populi, gentes et linguae adorantes imagmem auream, quam erexerat Nebuchad nezer rex.
We see how Nebuchadnezzar wished to establish among all the nations under his sway a religion in which there, should be no mixture of foreign novelty. He feared dissension as a cause of disunion in his empire. Hence we may suppose the king to have consulted his own private ease and advantage, as princes are accustomed to consult their own wishes rather than God's requirements in promulgating edicts concerning the worship of God. And from the beginning, this boldness and rashness have increased in the world, since those who have had supreme power have always dared to fabricate deities, and have proceeded beyond this even to ordering the gods which they have invented to be worshipped. The different kinds of gods are well known as divided into three — the Philosophical, the Political, and the Poetical. They called those gods "Philosophical" which natural reason prompts men
169Or, in the midst of the multitude; for {,{הילhil, may be explained both ways. --- Calvin. 170That is, nations of all languages. — Calvin. 171That is, instantly — Calvin. 172That is, instantly. — Calvin.