Daniel 3:19

One seven times more. Aramaic chadshib‘ah, literally meaning, “one seven,” with the meaning “seven times,” is a rather strange construction, but the same form is used also in an Aramaic letter of the 5th century B.C., from Elephantine. Some grammarians have thought that it is an abbreviation of a usual Aramaic idiom, while others, like Montgomery, think that “it may come from reminiscence of recitation of multiplication tables.” The increased heat in the furnace was probably produced by an extraordinary supply of chaff and crude oil. The oil would be obtained from the many open oil wells of Mesopotamia, which, from ancient times, have lavishly furnished this product, and with which modern brickkilns in the area are fired (see on v. 6). The purpose of this extraordinary command was probably not to increase the punishment. An increase of heat in the furnace would not have increased the torture of the victims. The king intended to forestall any possible intervention (see EGW, Supplementary Material, on this verse).