Plain of Dura
A place in the Bible
A plain in the province of Babylon.
What happened here
- The golden statue: King Nebuchadnezzar set up a very tall golden statue there and ordered everyone to worship it when the music sounded. Anyone who did not would be thrown into the fiery furnace.
- The three young men: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not worship it, and they were thrown, tied up, into the furnace. They walked about in the flames, praising God.
Today
It was near Babylon, in present-day Iraq. The exact place is not known.
Where it appears in the Bible
Daniel 3:1; Daniel 3:5-6; Daniel 3:23-24
What the Bible says
Daniel 3:1
King Nabuchodonosor made a statue of gold, of sixty cubits high, and six cubits broad, and he set it up in the plain of Dura of the province of Babylon.
Daniel 3:5-6
5That in the hour that you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, and of the flute, and of the harp, of the sackbut, and of the psaltery, and of the symphony, and of all kind of music; ye fall down and adore the golden statue which king Nabuchodonosor hath set up. 6But if any man shall not fall down and adore, he shall the same hour be cast into a furnace of burning fire.
Daniel 3:23-24
23But these three men, that is, Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, fell down bound in the midst of the furnace of burning fire. 24And they walked in the midst of the flame, praising God and blessing the Lord.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), “Dura”