and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden statue I have set up?
Those Chaldeans who accused them bore a grudge, likely because Daniel and his companions had eclipsed them; they requited good with evil for the very prayers that saved their lives. Envy is a bitter master and stands before nothing. Yet Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not hide away; they stood in office and bore public testimony against gross idolatry, though it cost them everything.
AI summary
Commenting on Daniel 3:8-18
Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, is it true,.... What I have heard of you, what you are charged with and accused of; surely it cannot be; so Aben Ezra and Saadiah interpret the word as we do, and all the Oriental versions: it is only used in this place: it is expressed by way of admiration, as Jacchiades observes; it being incredible to the...
Is it true--rather, as the Margin [THEODOTION], "Is it purposely that?" &c. Compare the Hebrew, Num 35:20, Num 35:22. Notwithstanding his "fury," his past favor for them disposes him to give them the opportunity of excusing themselves on the ground that their disobedience had not been intentional; so he gives them another trial to see whether they would still worship the image.