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Selah: A Guide
to Music in the Bibleby Don Thiessen Published by Cornerstone Press Chicago Daniel
Nebuchadnezzar's Gold Image 3:1-18
7 Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. 10 "You yourself,
O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the
horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe, and all kinds of music,
is to fall down and worship the golden image.
15 "Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe, and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you will not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?" This is one of the classic passages in Daniel where these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego (we don't know where Daniel was during this incident), who had been brought from the land of Israel to serve the pagan king, stand straight and tall with conviction, and refuse to obey a command of a king. This meant death. To them that made no difference. The question that Nebuchadnezzar asks at the end of verse 15 is meant to be rhetorical, but it is answered very clearly when the men do not burn in the furnace. To bend the knee to the king in this case was without doubt worshipping the king and denying God. To the Israelites the decision was clear.In this passage the music served as the signal to the bueaurocrats of Babylon that they were to worship the image commissioned by the king. The instruction was that they were to fall down and worship. One might think that the falling down would have been sufficient but there was some aspect to the event that required worship after they were kneeling (or possibly prostrating). Whether this meant that words were to be spoken or whether further actions were required we do not know. Whatever the case, to the king this was very serious and abstinence was not tolerated. In the worship of the people of God the relationship between music and worship has always been strong. Obviously it was the same in this pagan culture. A huge orchestra, a huge statue, the elite of the country and the command of the king were the ingredients that combined to make this an event that would please the gods of the nation but more so the ego of King Nebuchadnezzar. This list of instruments is probably the longest in the Scriptures. Four times these instruments are listed as the drama unfolds. It was as impressive then as it is now. The Babylonians obviously had a very highly developed music culture. The list is as follows: horn (qeren), flute (mashroqiytha) found only in Daniel, lyre (qitharos), trigon (sabbeka), psaltery (pesantrin), bagpipe (sumponeyah),and and all kinds of music (zemar). How many there were of each, we do not know. One could presume that there were many especially since each time it is also mentioned that it was these particular instruments and also all kinds of music. |
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