3:1 image of gold. The king, taken up with his importance as the golden head of the prophetic image to influence and direct the entire sequence of kingdoms that would come after him, arrogantly constructed his manufactured image entirely of gold, in effect proclaiming himself as destined to be the greatest man in world history.

3:1 threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits. An image with a height ten times its width would look more like an obelisk than a statue of a man. Possibly the king was trying to emphasize the long duration of his influence in the world. More probably, the height dimension included a high pedestal on which the statue rested.