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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Daniel 3:19 - 3:19
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The judgment pronounced on the accused, their punishment, and their miraculous deliverance.
After the decided refusal of the accused to worship his gods, Nebuchadnezzar changed his countenance toward them. Full of anger at such obstinacy, he commanded that the furnace should be heated seven times greater than was usual (Dan 3:19), and that the rebels should be bound in their clothes by powerful men of his army, and then cast into the furnace (Dan 3:20, Dan 3:21). The form of his countenance changed, and his wrath showed itself in the lineaments of his face. The Kethiv אֶשְׁתַּנִּו (plur.) refers to the genitive [אַנְפּוֹהִי, plur., “of his countenances”] as the chief idea, and is not, after the Keri, to be changed into the sing. לְמֵזֵא for לְמֵאזֵא. On הַד־שִׁבְעָה, sevenfold, cf. Winer, Chald. Gram. §59, 5. חֲזֵה דִּי עַל, beyond that which was fit, i.e., which was necessary. Seven is used as expressive of an exceedingly great number, with reference to the religious meaning of the punishment.