Daniel 3:16
New International Version
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.

New Living Translation
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you.

English Standard Version
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

Berean Standard Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

King James Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

New King James Version
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

New American Standard Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we are not in need of an answer to give you concerning this matter.

NASB 1995
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.

NASB 1977
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.

Legacy Standard Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to respond to you with an answer concerning this matter.

Amplified Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to answer you on this point.

Christian Standard Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question.

American Standard Version
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Shadrak, Mishak and Abednego answered and they were saying to Nebukadnetsar: “Oh King, we do not need an answer to give you on this matter

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Then answered Sedrach, Misach and Abdenago and said to king Nabuchodonosor, We have no need to answer thee concerning this matter.

Contemporary English Version
The three men replied, "Your Majesty, we don't need to defend ourselves.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago answered and said to king Nabuchodonosor: We have no occasion to answer thee concerning this matter.

English Revised Version
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, "We don't need to answer your last question.

Good News Translation
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered, "Your Majesty, we will not try to defend ourselves.

International Standard Version
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, "It's not necessary for us to respond in this matter.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king: 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter.

Literal Standard Version
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego have answered, indeed, they are saying to King Nebuchadnezzar, “We have no need concerning this matter to answer you.

Majority Standard Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

New American Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter.

NET Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar, "We do not need to give you a reply concerning this.

New Revised Standard Version
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter.

New Heart English Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, "Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

Webster's Bible Translation
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

World English Bible
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

Young's Literal Translation
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego have answered, yea, they are saying to the king Nebuchadnezzar, 'We have no need concerning this matter to answer thee.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego Accused
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?” 16Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand, O king.…

Cross References
Daniel 1:7
The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

Daniel 3:12
But there are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon--Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego--who have ignored you, O king, and have refused to serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up."

Daniel 3:28
Nebuchadnezzar declared, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him. They violated the king's command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.


Treasury of Scripture

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this matter.

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Abednego Abed'nego Abed-Nego Careful Defend Matter Meshach Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnez'zar Need Ourselves Shadrach
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Abednego Abed'nego Abed-Nego Careful Defend Matter Meshach Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnez'zar Need Ourselves Shadrach
Daniel 3
1. Nebuchadnezzar dedicates a golden image in Dura.
3. They being threatened, make a good confession.
8. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are accused for not worshipping the image.
19. They are cast into the furnace,
24. from which God delivers them.
28. Nebuchadnezzar seeing the miracle blesses God, and advances them.














(16) O Nebuchadnezzar.--They mention the king by name, so as to make their address correspond with his (Daniel 3:14). His attention would in this way be directed to the strong antithesis between his statement (Daniel 3:15) and theirs (Daniel 3:17). Great though the distinction was between king and subject in such a country as Babylon, yet that distinction was lost when any collision occurred between duty to Jehovah and obedience to a royal edict.

We are not careful.--More correctly, as translated by Theodotion, We have no need--i.e., it is needless for us to give any reply.

Verses 16-18. - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. The Septuagint Version differs in several slight points from the Massoretic. "And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the King Nebuchadnezzar, O king, we have no need to answer thee in regard to this command, for our God in the heavens is one Lord, whom we fear, who is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and will deliver us out of thy hands, and then it shall be manifest to thee that we neither serve thy gods, nor the golden image which thou hast set up do we worship." In this version we see the sixteenth verse agrees with the Massoretic: in the next verses there are considerable differences. The Septuagint translator seems to have read some part of דתל (dehal) instead of פלחין (paleheen). We cannot be certain that Κύριος represents יהוה, here, from the fact that the mannerism of the translator expresses itself in a preference for rendering אלהים by Κύριος. The Septuagint has τῶν χειρῶν instead of τῆς χειρός. Not improbably the original was dual, but the dual had practically disappeared from Hellenistic Greek. There seems a reference to the creed of the Jew (Deuteronomy 6:4) and to Psalm 115:3; speaking of God as "God of heaven" occurs in the previous chapter, ver. 18, and in ver. 28 Daniel speaks of his God as "in the heaven." However suitable, the first portion is yet to be put aside as an addition. The second portion of this differing clause occurs in Theodotion, and of it we shall shortly speak. There are several other less important differences over which we need not delay. Theodotion has, like the Septuagint, ἐν οὐρανοῖς, and like the Septuagint has the enclitic connection γὰρ, instead of the somewhat abrupt connection of the Massoretic, although the phrase, "in the heavens," has thus the support of the two. The Peshitta Version has to some extent resulted from the abrupt beginning to the seventeenth verse as it appears in the Massoretic. The Peshitta renders the opening clause, "our Lord is merciful." As in the Septuagint, so in the Peshitta, the word פִתְגַם (pith'gam) is taken as meaning "decree;" but miltha precedes it, which must be rendered, "matter of the decree." Otherwise there is nothing worthy of notice in the Peshitta Version of these verses. Jerome begins the seventeenth verse with "ecce entre," which is not so much a difference of reading from the Massoretic as a difference of rendering from the Authorized. It is clear that the Massoretic punctuation implies something awanting. הֵן in Biblical Aramaic means "if," and איתי "it is," that is, "if it be." One feels inclined to think that, suppressed, there was some statement equivalent to "if it be his good pleasure," thus manifesting a readiness to submit to God's will. According to the Massoretic, what follows asserts merely the ability of Jehovah, "our God whom we worship," to deliver his servants from the burning fiery furnace, and even from the hand of the great king himself; but there is no assertion that he will deliver them. The Septuagint Version presents a different aspect, as also Theodotion and the Peshitta. The mental attitude of the Massoretic is very different from the mood of later times. The versions, save Jerome, declare that God wilt deliver them out of the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. If they had received this assurance from God, there was in a sense less of witness-bearing to God than if they had not. The text of the Massoretic is here to be preferred. It is implied also in the meaning of the following verse. Even if God did not deliver them, still their determination is fixed - they will not worship the gods of the king, nor will they worship the golden image he has set up. It sometimes seems as if, even in our own day, we should be the better for the advent of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. There is still a demand that the people of God worship the golden image in the shape of wealth. The ministers of God are, we are told, not to denounce the wrongs of the world, lest the rich be offended. Wealth is not the only form of the golden image which men may be called upon to worship; the breath of popular applause may call them to denounce employers of labour unjustly on penalty of being dismissed or held up to reprobation. It is not the side that is important, but the motive; the cause of the poor may be pleaded as unjustly as that of the rich.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Shadrach,
שַׁדְרַ֤ךְ (šaḏ·raḵ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 7715: Shadrach -- Babylonian name of one of Daniel's companions

Meshach,
מֵישַׁךְ֙ (mê·šaḵ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 4336: Meshach -- a Babylonian name

and Abednego
נְג֔וֹ (nə·ḡōw)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 5665: Abed-nego -- 'servant of Nebo', Babylonian name of one of Daniel's companions

replied
עֲנ֗וֹ (‘ă·nōw)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 6032: To answer

to the king,
לְמַלְכָּ֑א (lə·mal·kā)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular determinate
Strong's 4430: A king

“O Nebuchadnezzar,
נְבֽוּכַדְנֶצַּ֔ר (nə·ḇū·ḵaḏ·neṣ·ṣar)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 5020: Nebuchadnezzar -- a Babylonian king

we
אֲנַ֧חְנָה (’ă·naḥ·nāh)
Pronoun - first person common plural
Strong's 586: We

have
לָֽא־ (lā-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3809: Not, no

no need
חַשְׁחִ֨ין (ḥaš·ḥîn)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 2818: To be necessary, to need

to answer you
לַהֲתָבוּתָֽךְ׃ (la·hă·ṯā·ḇū·ṯāḵ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 8421: To return

in
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5922: Above, over, upon, against

this
דְּנָ֛ה (də·nāh)
Pronoun - masculine singular
Strong's 1836: This

matter.
פִּתְגָ֖ם (piṯ·ḡām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6600: A word, answer, letter, decree


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OT Prophets: Daniel 3:16 Shadrach Meshach and Abednego answered the king (Dan. Da Dn)
Daniel 3:15
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