Chapter 48

¹ In the eighteenth year Nebuchadnezzar the king made a golden image, its height sixty cubits, its breadth six cubits, and he set it up in the plain of Deira in the province of Babylon. And he sent to gather the consuls, the generals and governors, the leaders and rulers and those in authority, and all the magistrates of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And they all gathered and came, and stood before the image. And the herald cried aloud: “To you it is commanded, O peoples, tribes, and tongues: at whatever hour you hear the sound of the trumpet, pipe and lyre, sambuca and psaltery, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the golden image; and whoever does not fall down and worship, in that same hour he shall be cast into the burning fiery furnace.”