is able to save us from the furnace of burning fire; but if He will not, we will not[1] worship thy god, nor adore the golden statue.” The king then ordered that a furnace should be heated seven times more than ordinarily, and that three of the strongest soldiers of his army should bind the young men and cast them, clothed as they were, into the furnace.
The order was instantly executed. But the angel of the Lord went down with the three holy youths into the furnace, and behold, inside the flames were extinguished, but outside the fires burned and flashed and destroyed the men who had executed the king’s cruel order. They were instantly consumed by the raging fire.
Within the furnace the air was cool and fresh, like to the breeze when the dew is falling. And the three young men, seeing themselves so wonderfully preserved, sang a glorious canticle[2] of praise and thanksgiving, which the Church of God still sings in her divine service.
The king, astonished to hear voices in the furnace singing, rose up and said to his nobles: “Did we not cast three men, bound, into the midst of the fire? I see four men, loose, and walking in the midst of the fire, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”[3]
Then going to the door of the furnace, he said: “Ye servants of the Most High God, go ye forth and come.” Thereupon the young men came forth safe and sound: not so much as a hair of their head was burned, nor was the smell of fire on their garments. Seeing this prodigy[4], Nabuchodonozor blessed God, saying: “Blessed be the God of Ananias, Misael and Azarias, who has sent His angel, and delivered His servants that believed in Him.”
He then decreed that whosoever, in all his kingdom, blasphemed the God whom these young men adored should be put
- ↑ We will not. By this beautiful answer the young men conveyed their belief that God could save them if He would, but that they would not dare demand that He should do so, for they did not think themselves worthy that a miracle should be worked on their behalf. “Anyhow”, said they, “we will not worship the image!”
- ↑ Canticle. “All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord” &c.
- ↑ Son of God. Like a higher and supernatural being.
- ↑ This prodigy. This great miracle again convinced Nabuchodonozor that the God whom the young men served was the Most High God.
