Daniel 3:19–30

Daniel’s Friends Delivered

¹⁹Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with ^awrath, and the image of his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. He answered and said to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.

²⁰And he said to certain mighty men of valor who were in his military ¹host to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire.

²¹Then these men were tied up in their ^1atrousers, their ²coats, their caps, and their other clothes and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire.

²²For this reason, because the king’s word was ^1aurgent and the furnace had been heated to an extraordinary degree, the flame of the fire killed those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

²³But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ^afell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up.

²⁴Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and hurriedly stood up; he answered and said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast tied up into the midst of the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “Certainly, O king.”

²⁵He answered and said, “Look! I see four men loosed and ^awalking about in the midst of the fire ¹without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the ^bgods!”

²⁶Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he answered and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the ^aMost High God, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego ^bcame out of the midst of the fire.

²⁷Then the ^asatraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the ^bfire had no power over ¹the bodies of these men, nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their ^2ctrousers ³damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them.

²⁸Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the ^aGod of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who has ^bsent His angel and saved His servants who put their ^ctrust in Him, ¹violating the king’s word, and gave up their bodies so as ^dnot to serve and not to worship any god except their own God.

²⁹“Therefore I ^amake a decree that any people, nation, or tongue that says anything offensive against the God of ^bShadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their ^chouses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is ^dno other god who is able to deliver in this way.”

³⁰Then the king ^acaused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to succeed in the province of Babylon.