Commentary on Daniel Chapters 1-12 John Calvin (continued)
DANIEL
tendants, and commanded them to follow him, God thus removed all doubts, by liberating his servants, because light emerges more clearly from the darkness, when Satan endeavors to shut it out. Thus God is accustomed to frustrate the impious; and the more impious they are in opposing his glory, the more he makes his honor and doctrine conspicuous. In like manner, Daniel here paints, as in a picture, how King Nebuchadnezzar passed nothing by, when he wished to strike terror into the minds of all the Jews by this cruel punishment. And yet he obtained nothing else by his plans than a clearer illustration of God's power and grace towards his servants. It now follows: —
Daniel 3:21-23 21. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
21. Tunc viri illi vincti sunt, vel, ligati, in suis chlamydibus, 189 et cum tiaris suis: 190 in vestitu suo: et projecti sunt in fornacem ignis ardentis.
22. Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
22. Propterea quod urgebat, vel, festinabat, ud verbum praeceptum regis, et fornacem vehementer jusserat accendi, viros illos qui extulerant Sadrach, Mesach, et Abed-nego occidit t kavilla, alii vertunt fammam, ignis.
23. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
23. Et viri illi tres Sadrach, Mesach et Abednego ceciderant in medium fornacis ignis, 191 ardentis vincti.
Here Daniel relates the miracle by which God liberated his servants. He has two parts: first, these three holy men walked untouched in the midst of the flame; and the fires consumed those attendants who east them into the furnace. The Prophet diligently enumerates whatever tends to prove the power of God. He says, since the king's command was urgent, that is, since the king ordered in such anger the furnace to be heated, the flames devour the men who executed his orders. For in Job, (Job 18:5,) {,}שביב shebib, means "spark," or the extremity of a flame. The sense of the Prophet is by no means obscure, since the extremity of the flame consumed those strong attendants by playing round them, while Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego walked through the fuel in the fire and flame. They were not in the extremity of the flame; for it is as if the Prophet had said — the
189Some translate sandals, or, shoes, others hose; but the majority take the second noun for hose; but we need not trouble ourselves too much about the words, if we only understand the thing itself. — Calvin.
190We know that the Orientals then wore turbans as they do now, for they wrap up he head; and though we do not see many of them, yet we know the Turkish dress; then the general name is added. — Calvin. See also the note on this passage in Wintle's translation, which is full of good explanatory notes.
191That is, within the furnace of fire. — Calvin.