And whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into the blazing fiery furnace.”
Parallel translations
- WEB and whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall the same hour be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace.
- KJV And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
- NKJV and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.”
- NASB But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be thrown into the middle of a furnace of blazing fire.”
- NLT Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Anyone refusing to bow is to be thrown at once into a blazing furnace. The decree backs idolatry with the threat of death.
Overview
The furnace makes the cost of faithfulness brutally clear: bow or burn. Babylon offers no middle ground, exposing the tyranny that lies behind enforced worship. This deadly ultimatum sets up the great test of whether the Hebrews will fear God or man, a choice every persecuted believer eventually faces.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Matt 13:42And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- Matt 13:50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- Jer 29:22Because of them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’
- Dan 3:15Now, if you are ready, as soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the statue I have made. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”
- Dan 3:11and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into the blazing fiery furnace.
- Rev 9:2The star opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.
- Rev 14:11And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. Day and night there is no rest for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
- Ezek 22:18–22“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver.
- Rev 13:15–17The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed.
- Dan 6:7All the royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers, and governors have agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce a decree that for thirty days anyone who petitions any god or man except you, O king, will be thrown into the den of lions.
- Gen 19:28He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
- Dan 2:12–13This response made the king so furious with anger that he gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
- Isa 44:17From the rest he makes a god, his graven image. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”
- Exod 20:5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- Dan 3:21So they were tied up, wearing robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, and they were thrown into the blazing fiery furnace.
- Dan 2:5The king replied to the astrologers, “My word is final: If you do not tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut into pieces and your houses will be reduced to rubble.
- Matt 4:9“All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.”
- Mark 6:27So without delay, the king commanded that John’s head be brought in. He sent an executioner, who went and beheaded him in the prison.
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Christ at the center
Daniel sees the stone cut without hands that shatters the kingdoms, and 'one like a son of man' given everlasting dominion — titles and visions Jesus claims as his own.
How Daniel 3:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.