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Song of the Three Holy Children 1: What the Passage Says

178 claims across 68 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Song of the Three Holy Children 1 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Three men walk in the middle of the fire praising God, and Azarias stands up and prays, admitting that the people have sinned and asking God to keep his covenant, show mercy, and rescue them. The king's servants keep stoking the furnace until the flame shoots far above it and burns the Chaldeans standing around, and then the angel of the Lord comes down, drives the flame out, and makes the inside of the furnace like a damp, whistling wind. The three men then sing together, blessing God and calling on every part of creation, from the heavens and the weather to the seas, the animals, and the people of Israel, to bless the Lord forever.

Claim by Claim

  1. 1:1
    • They walked in the midst of the fire.
    • They praised God.
    • They blessed the Lord.
  2. 1:2
    • Azarias stood up.
    • Azarias prayed in this manner.
    • Azarias opened his mouth in the midst of the fire.
    • Azarias spoke.
  3. 1:3
    • Azarias said the Lord God of their fathers is blessed.
    • Azarias said God's name is worthy to be praised and glorified for evermore.
  4. 1:4
    • God is righteous in all the things he has done to them.
    • All God's works are true.
    • God's ways are right.
    • All God's judgments are truth.
  5. 1:5
    • God executed true judgment in all the things he brought upon them and upon the holy city of their fathers.
    • The holy city of their fathers is Jerusalem.
    • God brought all these things upon them according to truth and judgment.
    • God brought all these things upon them because of their sins.
  6. 1:6
    • They have sinned.
    • They have committed iniquity.
    • They departed from God.
  7. 1:7
    • They have trespassed in all things.
    • They have not obeyed God's commandments.
    • They have not kept God's commandments.
    • They have not done as God commanded them.
    • God commanded them so that it might go well with them.
  8. 1:8
    • Everything God brought upon them, God did in true judgment.
    • Everything God did to them, God did in true judgment.
  9. 1:9
    • God delivered them into the hands of lawless enemies.
    • Those enemies are most hateful forsakers of God.
    • God delivered them to an unjust king.
    • That king is the most wicked in all the world.
  10. 1:10
    • Now they cannot open their mouths.
    • They have become a shame and a reproach to God's servants and to those that worship God.
  11. 1:11
    • Azarias asked God not to deliver them up wholly.
    • Azarias appealed to God's name as the reason.
    • Azarias asked God not to disannul his covenant.
  12. 1:12
    • Azarias asked God not to cause his mercy to depart from them.
    • Azarias appealed for the sake of Abraham, whom God loves.
    • Azarias appealed for the sake of Isaac, God's servant.
    • Azarias appealed for the sake of Israel, God's holy one.
  13. 1:13
    • God spoke and promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.
    • God promised to multiply their seed as the stars of heaven.
    • God promised to multiply their seed as the sand that lies upon the seashore.
  14. 1:14
    • They have become less than any nation.
    • They are kept under this day in all the world.
    • This is because of their sins.
  15. 1:15
    • At this time there is no prince.
    • At this time there is no prophet.
    • At this time there is no leader.
    • At this time there is no burnt offering.
    • At this time there is no sacrifice.
    • At this time there is no oblation.
    • At this time there is no incense.
    • At this time there is no place to sacrifice before God and to find mercy.
  16. 1:16
    • Azarias asked that they be accepted with a contrite heart and a humble spirit.
  17. 1:17
    • Azarias asked that their sacrifice that day be in God's sight as burnt offerings of rams and bullocks.
    • Azarias asked that it be as ten thousands of fat lambs.
    • Azarias asked God to grant that they may wholly go after him.
    • Those that put their trust in God shall not be confounded.
  18. 1:18
    • Now they follow God with all their heart.
    • They fear God.
    • They seek God's face.
  19. 1:19
    • Azarias asked God not to put them to shame.
    • Azarias asked God to deal with them after his lovingkindness.
    • Azarias asked God to deal with them according to the multitude of his mercies.
  20. 1:20
    • Azarias asked God to deliver them according to his marvellous works.
    • Azarias asked God to give glory to his own name.
    • Azarias asked that all those who do God's servants hurt be ashamed.
  21. 1:21
    • Azarias asked that they be confounded in all their power and might.
    • Azarias asked that their strength be broken.
  22. 1:22
    • Azarias asked that they know God is God.
    • Azarias asked that they know God is the only God.
    • Azarias asked that they know God is glorious over the whole world.
  23. 1:23
    • The king's servants who put them in did not cease to make the oven hot.
    • They made it hot with rosin.
    • They made it hot with pitch.
    • They made it hot with tow.
    • They made it hot with small wood.
  24. 1:24
    • The flame streamed forth above the furnace forty-nine cubits.
  25. 1:25
    • The flame passed through.
    • The flame burned those Chaldeans it found about the furnace.
  26. 1:26
    • The angel of the Lord came down into the oven together with Azarias and his fellows.
    • The angel smote the flame of the fire out of the oven.
  27. 1:27
    • The angel made the midst of the furnace like a moist whistling wind.
    • The fire did not touch them at all.
    • The fire did not hurt them.
    • The fire did not trouble them.
  28. 1:28
    • The three praised, glorified, and blessed God in the furnace.
    • They did so as out of one mouth.
    • They spoke the following.
  29. 1:29
    • The Lord God of their fathers is blessed.
    • He is to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
  30. 1:30
    • God's glorious and holy name is blessed.
    • It is to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
  31. 1:31
    • God is blessed in the temple of his holy glory.
    • He is to be praised and glorified above all for ever.
  32. 1:32
    • God beholds the depths.
    • God sits upon the cherubim.
    • He is to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
  33. 1:33
    • God is blessed on the glorious throne of his kingdom.
    • He is to be praised and glorified above all for ever.
  34. 1:34
    • God is blessed in the firmament of heaven.
    • He is to be praised and glorified above all for ever.
  35. 1:35
    • All the works of the Lord are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  36. 1:36
    • The heavens are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  37. 1:37
    • The angels of the Lord are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  38. 1:38
    • All the waters above the heaven are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  39. 1:39
    • All the powers of the Lord are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  40. 1:40
    • The sun and moon are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  41. 1:41
    • The stars of heaven are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  42. 1:42
    • Every shower and dew is called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  43. 1:43
    • All the winds are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  44. 1:44
    • Fire and heat are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  45. 1:45
    • Winter and summer are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  46. 1:46
    • Dews and storms of snow are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  47. 1:47
    • Nights and days are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to bless and exalt him above all for ever.
  48. 1:48
    • Light and darkness are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  49. 1:49
    • Ice and cold are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  50. 1:50
    • Frost and snow are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  51. 1:51
    • Lightnings and clouds are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  52. 1:52
    • The earth is called to bless the Lord.
    • It is called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  53. 1:53
    • Mountains and little hills are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  54. 1:54
    • All things that grow in the earth are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  55. 1:55
    • Mountains are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  56. 1:56
    • Seas and rivers are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  57. 1:57
    • Whales and all that move in the waters are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  58. 1:58
    • All the fowls of the air are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  59. 1:59
    • All beasts and cattle are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  60. 1:60
    • The children of men are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  61. 1:61
    • Israel is called to bless the Lord.
    • Israel is called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  62. 1:62
    • The priests of the Lord are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  63. 1:63
    • The servants of the Lord are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  64. 1:64
    • The spirits and souls of the righteous are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  65. 1:65
    • The holy and humble men of heart are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
  66. 1:66
    • Ananias, Azarias, and Misael are called to bless the Lord.
    • They are called to praise and exalt him above all for ever.
    • He has delivered them from hell.
    • He has saved them from the hand of death.
    • He has delivered them out of the midst of the furnace and burning flame.
    • He has delivered them out of the midst of the fire.
  67. 1:67
    • The hearers are called to give thanks to the Lord.
    • The Lord is gracious.
    • The Lord's mercy endures for ever.
  68. 1:68
    • All those that worship the Lord are called to bless the God of gods.
    • They are called to praise him.
    • They are called to give him thanks.
    • His mercy endures for ever.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1
The chapter opens in the middle of a story told in Daniel 3. Three young Judean exiles have refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's golden image and have been thrown into a blazing furnace. In the Greek versions of Daniel this prayer and hymn stand between Daniel 3:23 and 3:24; the Hebrew and Aramaic text of Daniel does not contain them, which is why many Bibles print them separately, as here. The unexplained "they" of this first line is the three men.
1:2
Azarias is the Greek spelling of Azariah. Daniel 1:7 records that Babylonian officials renamed the captured Judean youths, and Azariah was given the court name Abednego; this Greek text keeps his Hebrew name instead.
1:3
To "bless" God is not to give him something he lacks. In Hebrew and Greek the same verb covers blessing and praising, so blessing God means speaking well of him, acknowledging out loud what he is.
1:4
A judgment is a decision about what is right and what is wrong.
1:5
The judgment being accepted is the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 BC, when the city and its temple were destroyed and much of the population was deported. The prayer treats that disaster as a just sentence rather than as an accident of war.
1:6
To sin means to do what God says is wrong.
1:9
The "unjust king" is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in whose furnace the three men are standing as they pray.
1:10
"We cannot open our mouths" is an idiom for having no case to argue, like a defendant with nothing to say in his own defense. It does not mean they have been physically silenced.
1:11
A covenant was a formal binding agreement, sworn and permanent, with obligations on both sides. The one meant here is the agreement between God and Israel, which the prayer asks God not to treat as void even though Israel has broken its side of it.
1:12
"Israel" here is a person, not the nation. It is the second name given to Jacob, Isaac's son, so the line names the three ancestors in order: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
1:13
The promise referred to is the one made to Abraham in Genesis, of descendants as countless as the stars and as the sand on the shore. "Seed" in the King James means offspring or descendants.
1:14
"Kept under" means held down, kept in subjection. The speakers are exiles living under foreign rule, scattered and without a country of their own.
1:15
A list of everything Israel's worship had lost when the temple was destroyed. A burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar; a sacrifice here is an offering of which parts were eaten by the worshipers; "oblation" translates the word for a grain offering; incense was burned daily on a small altar inside the sanctuary. The "place to sacrifice" is the altar in Jerusalem, held to be the only legitimate site for these rites. With the temple gone, none of it could be carried out.
1:16
A "contrite" heart is a crushed or broken one. The prayer offers this state of mind in place of the offerings listed in the verse before.
1:17
Bullocks are young bulls. "Ten thousands" is the ordinary ancient way of saying an uncountably large number, not a literal tally. "Confounded" in the King James means publicly shamed or humiliated, not confused; the same word carries that older sense in verse 21.
1:18
To "seek thy face" is a Hebrew idiom for seeking someone's presence and goodwill, as a subject would seek an audience with a king.
1:19
"Lovingkindness" is the King James word for steady, loyal kindness owed inside a committed relationship. The Greek word behind it here adds the sense of a powerful person's forbearance, a willingness not to press an advantage.
1:20
Giving glory to God's name means telling everyone how great he is.
1:23
All four items are fuel. "Rosin" renders a Greek word for naphtha, a highly flammable petroleum liquid; "pitch" is tar or bitumen; "tow" is the coarse short fiber left over from combing flax, which catches fire instantly; "small wood" is brushwood or kindling. The list is describing how hard the fire was being stoked.
1:24
A cubit was roughly eighteen inches, about the length of a forearm, so forty-nine cubits is somewhere near seventy-three feet, or twenty-two meters. Forty-nine is seven sevens, and numbers built on seven are commonly used in this literature as figures of completeness rather than as measurements.
1:25
The Chaldeans were the ruling people of Babylon, and the name is often used simply to mean Babylonians. In the book of Daniel it can also narrow to a class of court experts in astrology and divination. Here it means the king's men standing near the furnace.
1:26
"His fellows" means his companions, the other two men. In Daniel 3:25 the king looks into the furnace and reports seeing a fourth figure walking with them.
1:27
The Greek describes a breeze carrying moisture, a damp wind whistling through the furnace. The inside of the furnace has become the opposite of what it should be: cool and wet instead of scorching.
1:28
What follows, verses 29 to 68, is a hymn that also circulated on its own. It is known by its opening word in Latin, Benedicite, and has been sung in Christian daily prayer for centuries. Every line follows one pattern: a call addressed to some part of creation, then a fixed refrain.
1:31
The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed by the time this prayer is set, so the phrase is genuinely open: it may look back to the ruined sanctuary, or it may mean a heavenly temple of which the earthly one was a copy. The Greek does not settle it.
1:32
Cherubim are winged creatures of a kind familiar from ancient Near Eastern art, often shown as composite beasts guarding a throne or a gateway. Two gold cherubim stood over the ark in the Jerusalem temple, and God was spoken of as enthroned above them. The King James "cherubims" adds an English plural to a word that is already plural in Hebrew. "The depths" are the deep waters, or the deepest hidden places, whatever lies beyond sight.
1:34
The "firmament" is the sky imagined as a solid dome stretched over the earth, as in Genesis 1. The English word comes from a Latin term meaning something made firm.
1:35
From here the song says the same line again and again. It works like a chorus. A group could sing it back after every part.
1:38
In the view of the world assumed here, the dome of the sky holds back an ocean above it, and rain falls when that water is let through. The waters above the heaven are that upper sea, not clouds.
1:39
"Powers" can mean the armies of heaven, that is, ranks of angels, and it can also mean the heavenly bodies drawn up like an army. The Greek word carries both senses, and the hymn does not choose between them.
1:42
Dew is the tiny drops of water you find on grass in the morning.
1:50
Frost is the thin white ice that covers things on cold mornings.
1:55
Mountains are addressed twice, here and in verse 53. The Greek manuscripts of this hymn differ in how many of these lines they have and in what order they run, and the King James follows a text in which both "mountains and little hills" and a separate "mountains" stand.
1:57
The King James "whales" renders a Greek word for any enormous sea creature, the monsters of the deep rather than one particular species. The line pairs the largest things in the sea with everything else that moves in it.
1:59
Cattle are farm animals like cows, sheep, and goats.
1:60
"Children of men" is a Hebrew way of saying human beings in general. It says nothing about age.
1:61
Israel here means the whole family of God's people, not one man.
1:62
A priest was a helper who brought people's gifts to God at the temple.
1:64
"Spirits and souls of the righteous" reads most naturally as the righteous dead, those no longer alive, but it can also be taken simply as faithful people still living. The Greek leaves both open.
1:66
These are the Greek forms of the three men's Hebrew names: Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael. They are better known by the Babylonian names given them at court, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. "Hell" here does not mean a place of punishment. The Greek word is hades, standing for the older Hebrew sheol, the underworld where all the dead were thought to go, so being delivered from it means being saved from dying.
1:67
This line is a standing refrain of Israelite worship, used to open and close psalms such as Psalm 118 and repeated after every single line of Psalm 136. "Gracious" here translates a word meaning good or kind.
1:68
"God of gods" is a Hebrew way of forming a superlative, like "king of kings": it means the highest God, the one above all others.

Read Song of the Three Holy Children 1