Dura

Du´ra, the plain in which Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden image (Dan 3:1). It is clear from the context that ’the plain of Dura’ could be no other than that plain (or some part of it) in which Babylon itself was situated.

The plain in Babylon where Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden image. Dan 3:1 .\par

Du’ra. (a circle). The plain where Nebuchadnezzar set up the golden image, Dan 3:1, has been sometimes identified with a tract a little below Tekrit, on the left bank of the Tigris, where the name Dur is still found.

M. Oppert places the plain, (or, as he calls it, the "valley"), of Dura to the southeast of Babylon, in the vicinity of the mound of Dowair or Duair, where was found the pedestal of a huge statue.

Now Duair, S.E. of Babil (Dan 3:1). Oppert found there the pedestal of a colossal statue.

(Chal. Dura, דּוּרָא, the circle, i.e., Hebrew דּוּרso the Sept. renders, τὸ περίβολον, but v.r. Δεείρα; Vulg. Dura), the plain where Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden colossus to be adored (Dan 3:1). Interpreters usually compare Dura to a city mentioned by Aminian. Marcell (25:6), situated near the Tigris (Mannert, 5:462); or another of the same name (Δεηρά) in Polybius (5:48, 16) and Ammian. Marcell (23:5), on the Euphrates, near the mouth of the Chaboras, 7 miles from Carchemish; or, finally, one of a similar name (Δεηρά) in Susiana (Ptol. 6:3, 3). But these quarters are all too distant from Babylon to have been historically possible, as it is clear from the context that "the plain of Drea" could be no other than that plain (or some part of it) in which Babylon itself was situated (Herod. 1:178), i.e., Shinar (Gen 11:2). Even against the first of these locations, the tract a little below Tekrit, on the left bank of the Tigris (Layard, Nin. and Bab. page 469), where the name Dur is still found, there are the following objections: (1) this tract probably never belonged to Babylon; (2) at any rate, it is too far from the capital to be the place where the image was set up, for the plain of Dura was in the province or district of Babylon (בַּמְדַּינִתבָּבֶל), and therefore in the vicinity of the city; (3) the name Dur, in its modern use, is applicable to any plain. M. Oppert places the plain (or, as he calls it, the "valley") of Dura to the south-east of Babylon, in the vicinity of the mound of Dowair or Duair. He has discovered on this site the pedestal of a colossal statue, and regards the modern name as a corruption of the ancient appellation. The Talmudical notice (Sanhedr. fol. 92, 2: מנהר אשׁל עד רבה בקעת דורא) is olscure (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. col. 520). See Lakemacher, Observ. philol. 7:28 sq. SEE BABYLON.

Dura (dû’rah), circle. The place where Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden image. Dan 3:1. Layard identifies it with Dur, below Tekrit, on the east bank of the Tigris; but Oppert would place it, with more probability, to the southeast of Babylon, near a mound called Dúair, where he found the pedestal of a colossal statue.

[Du’ra]

Plain in the province of Babylon, where Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image was set up. Dan 3:1. Perhaps the same as Duair, S.E. of Babylon.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Gerson B. Levi

A valley mentioned only in Daniel (iii. 1). Here Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image, to the dedication of which he summoned all the officers of his kingdom. The Septuagint (Codex Chisianus) reads περιβόλου ("walls surrounding a city"), and this may be due to the Assyrian "duru" (= a wall). The place is therefore to be looked for in Assyria. Delitzsch("Wo Lag das Paradies?" p. 216) says that, according to Rawlinson, "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," iv. 38, 9-11b, there were three places in Babylon called "Dura" (see also Schrader, "C. I. O.T." ii. 128). In one of these places east of Babylon, according to Oppert, ruins of an ancient statue have been found.

dū´ra (דּוּרא, dūrā’): The name of the plain on which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, set up the great golden image which all his subjects were ordered to worship (Dan 3:1). Oppert placed it to the Southeast of Babylon, near a small river and mounds bearing the name of Douair or Dûair, where, also, was what seemed to be the base of a great statue (Expéd. scientifique en Mésopotamie, I, 238 f). Others have believed that name to indicate a portion of the actual site of Babylon within the great wall (dûru) of the city - perhaps the rampart designated dûr Šu-anna, “the rampart (of the city) Lofty-defense,” a name of Babylon. The fact that the plain was within the city of Babylon precludes an identification with the city Dûru, which seems to have lain in the neighborhood of Erech (Hommel, Grundriss, 264, note 5). It is noteworthy that the Septuagint substitutes Δεειρά, Deeirá, for Dura, suggesting that the Greek translators identified it with the Babylonian Dêru, a city which apparently lay toward the Elamite border. It seems to have been called also Dûr-ı̂li, “god’s rampart.” That it was at some distance is supported by the list WAI, IV, 36 [38, where Dûru, Tutul and Gudua (Cuthah), intervene between Dêru or Dûr-ı̂li and Tindir (Babylon). “The plain of the dûr” or “rampart” within Babylon would therefore seem to be the best rendering.