Bible Dictionary
Dura
Dura was the plain near Babylon where Nebuchadnezzar set up a great golden image and commanded his subjects to worship it. The location is associated with the events recorded in Daniel 3.
Definition
Dura was the plain or valley where Nebuchadnezzar set up a great golden image and commanded his subjects to worship it. The name may refer to a plain, a rampart, or a locality connected with Babylon.
Biblical Usage
Dura is the setting of the event in Daniel 3, where the golden image was erected and worship was imposed on the king’s subjects.
Historical Background
Proposed locations include a plain southeast of Babylon near mounds called Douair or Duair, and a portion of Babylon within its great wall. A pedestal or base of a large statue was reported near the proposed southeast location, but the identification remains uncertain.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
The circle, the plain near Babylon in which Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image, mentioned in Dan. 3:1. The place still retains its ancient name. On one of its many mounds the pedestal of what must have been a colossal statue has been found. It has been supposed to be that of the golden image.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(a circle), the plain where Nebuchadnezzar set up the golden image, (Daniel 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.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>du'-ra (dura'): 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 (Da 3:1). Oppert placed it to the Southeast of Babylon, near a small river and mounds bearing the name of Douair or Duair, where, also, was what seemed to be the base of a great statue (Exped. scientifique en Mesopotamie, I, 238 f). Others have believed that name to indicate a portion of the actual site of Babylon within the great wall (duru) of the city--perhaps the rampart designated dur Su-anna, "the rampart (of the city) Lofty-defense," a name of Babylon.</p><p>The fact that the plain was within the city of Babylon precludes an identification with the city Duru, which seems to have lain in the neighborhood of Erech (Hommel, Grundriss, 264, note 5). It is noteworthy that the Septuagint substitutes Deeira, for Dura, suggesting that the Greek translators identified it with the Babylonian Deru, a city which apparently lay toward the Elamite border. It seems to have been called also Dur-ili, "god's rampart." That it was at some distance is supported by the list WAI, IV, 36 [38], where Duru, Tutul and Gudua (Cuthah), intervene between Deru or Dur-ili and Tindir (Babylon). "The plain of the dur" or "rampart" within Babylon would therefore seem to be the best rendering.</p><p>T. G. Pinches</p>