Nebuchadnezzar said, Is it true, O Shadrach? &c. Or, of purpose, as the margin reads it, and as the word is used, Exodus 21:13. Is it designedly and deliberately done, or was it only through inadvertency, that you have not served my gods? What! you that I have nourished and brought up; that have been educated and maintained at my charge; that I have been so kind to, and done so much for; you that have been in such reputation for wisdom, and therefore should better have known your duty to your prince; what! do not you serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Observe, reader, the faithfulness of God's servants to him has often been the wonder of their enemies and persecutors, who think it strange that they run not with them to the same excess of riot. Now if ye be ready, &c. He is willing to admit them to a new trial; if they did purpose before not to worship his gods, yet it may be, upon second thoughts, they will change their minds; it is therefore repeated to them upon what terms they now stand: 1st, The king is willing that the music should play again, for their sakes only, to soften them into a compliance; and if they will not, like the deaf adder, stop their ears, but will hearken to the voice of the charmers, and will worship the golden image, well and good, their former omission shall be pardoned. But, 2d, The king is resolved, if they persist in their refusal, that they shall immediately be cast into the fiery furnace, and shall not have so much as an hour's reprieve. Thus does the matter lie in a little compass; Turn or burn, is the king's language. And because he knew they buoyed themselves up in their refusal with a confidence in their God, he insolently sets him at defiance, saying, And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Let him deliver you if he can. Now he forgot what he himself once owned, that their God was a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, Daniel 2:47. Proud men are still ready to say, as Pharaoh. Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?
Related Commentaries of Daniel 3:14
Daniel 3:14-15
14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true,d O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?