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The righteous
Jews who were cast into the fiery furnace utter prayers for deliverance
and sing a song of praise.
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The book
of Daniel includes the story
of three righteous Jewish men: Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach), and
Azariah (Abednego). Because they refused to worship an idol, they were cast
into a fiery furnace. After Daniel 3:23, Roman Catholic Bibles include a
prayer and song, which is printed as a separate book in Protestant editions
of the Apocrypha. The prayer and song are found in the ancient Greek version
of Daniel, but not in the Hebrew version. Azariah prays that God will
save them from the flames and thereby demonstrate God's glory to the world.
God responds by sending an angel into the furnace with them. Then all three
men sing of God's great acts among the Jewish people and in all the earth,
giving thanks for their deliverance from death in the fiery furnace. |
