three or third · cardinal number, both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
men
וְגֻבְרַיָּ֤אve.guv.rai.Ya'
H1400
a person · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural determined + particle of affirmation
Shadrach
שַׁדְרַ֥ךְshad.Rakh
H7715
Shadrak · proper noun, a man's name
Meshach
מֵישַׁ֖ךְmei.Shakh
H4336
Meshak · proper noun, a man's name
Abed-nego
וַעֲבֵ֣דva.'a.Ved
H5665
Abed-Nego · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
down
נְפַ֛לוּne.Fa.lu
H5308
to fall · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine plural
bound
מְכַפְּתִֽיןme.kha.pe.Tin
H3729
to fetter · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
midst
לְגֽוֹאle.goy'-
H1459
the middle · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
burning
יָֽקִדְתָּ֖אya.kid.Ta'
H3345
to burn · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular determined + particle of affirmation
fiery
נוּרָ֥אnu.Ra'
H5135
fire · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
furnace
אַתּוּן'a.tun-
H861
probably a fire-place · noun, common both genders singular construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 38:6 Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let d…
Daniel 6:16-17 Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom…
Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
Psalms 66:11-12 Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.
Psalms 124:1-5 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;
2 Corinthians 1:8-10 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength,…
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 3:19-27
In these verses we have,
I. The casting of these three faithful servants of God into the fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar had himself known and owned so much of the true God that, one would have thought, though his pride and vanity induced him to make this golden image, and set it up to be worshipped, yet what these young men now said (whom he had formerly found to be wiser than all his wise men) would revive his convictions, and at least engage him to excuse them; but it proved quite otherwise. 1. Instead of being convinced by what they said, he was exasperated, and made more outrageous, Dan 3:19. It made him full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against these men. Note, Brutish…
fell down--not cast down; for those who brought the three youths to the furnace, perished by the flames themselves, and so could not cast them in. Here follows an addition in the Septuagint, Syrian, Arabic, and Vulgate versions. "The Prayer of Azarias," and "The Song of the Three Holy Children." It is not in the Chaldee. The hymn was sung throughout the whole Church in their liturgies, from the earliest times [RUFINUS in Commentary on the Apostles Creed, and ATHANASIUS]. The "astonishment" of Nebuchadnezzar in Dan 3:24 is made an argument for its genuineness, as if it explained the cause of his astonishment, namely, "they walked in the midst of the fire praising God, but the angel of the Lor…
And these three men - fell down bound - There is a most evident want of connection between this and the following verse; and it is between these verses that the apocryphal Song of the Three Children, as it is called, has been inserted by St. Jerome and others; but with this note: Quae sequuntur in Hebraeis voluminibus non reperi; "What follows I have not found in the Hebrew books." And then begins, "They walked in the midst of the flame, praising God, and blessing the Lord." The Septuagint and Arabic read the twenty-fourth verse thus: "Then Nebuchadnezzar heard them singing praise, and was astonished." To connect the two verses Houbigant adds two verses found in the Vulgate, which are the fo…
The Church Fathers
Verse 23. "But these three men, (here the Vulgate inserts: "that is,") Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell fettered into the midst of the furnace of flaming fire. And they were walking about in the midst of the flames praising God and blessing the Lord. And Azariah stood and prayed after this fashion, opening his mouth in the midst of the fire and saying..." It was a great miracle for men to be cast into a furnace bound and to fall headlong into the midst of the fire, only to have the bonds burn up by which they were bound, the bodies of the fettered withal remaining untouched by the timid flames. The Hebrew text goes only up to this point and the intervening passage which now follows as far as the end of the Song of the Three Youths is not contained in the Hebrew. Lest we seem to pass over it altogether, we must make a few observations.
Accordingly, after these things happened, Scripture says, "And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, fell into the midst of the furnace while bound and that they were walking in the midst of the flame, hymning to God and blessing the Lord." [Daniel 3:23; Song of the Three Children 1] And so the bonds which the king put around them, these the fire consumed immediately, yet it did not singe their garments and cloaks so that even in this event the great work of God may be shown. For since the garments were clad around the bodies of the boys, these also with them were made holy and were not consumed by the fire, so that God, with the boys, may be honored in their witness. Let the arch-heretics, who deny the resurrection of themselves, tell me, how do they say there is no resurrection of the flesh, when the perishable garments and sandals, which came from the death of living creatures, are not destroyed by fire on account of the holiness which clothes their bodies? How also does the flesh, which is perishable and which clothes the holy soul, not also with the soul be made holy and be changed into incorruptible? For if what is corruptible in nature did not receive corruption, how does what is incorruptible in nature, but has died through disobedience, again having been made alive by the power of God, not actually be made alive? So that the Scripture persuades us in every way to believe in God from a whole heart, in which way those who are perfect, who have believed, may be preserved from the furnace of fire as perfect along with their garb and cloaks. For if then the fire did not tame them, how is the eternal fire able to master the saints and they who similarly believe?
Dictionary and topics
Abednego — Servant of Nego=Nebo, the Chaldee name given to Azariah, one of Daniel’s three companions (Dan. 2:49). With Shadrach and Meshach, he was delivered from the burning fiery furnace (3:12-30).
Daniel, Apocryphal Additions To — The Greek translations of Daniel contain several pieces which are not found int he original text. The most important are contained in the Apocrypha of the English Bible under the titles of The Son of…
Furnace — (1.) Chald. attun, a large furnace with a wide open mouth, at the top of which materials were cast in (Dan. 3:22, 23; comp. Jer. 29:22). This furnace would be in constant requisition, for the…
Meshach — The title given to Mishael, one of the three Hebrew youths who were under training at the Babylonian court for the rank of Magi (Dan. 1:7; 2:49; 3:12-30). This was probably the name of some Chaldean…
Nebuchadnezzar — In the Babylonian orthography Nabu-kudur-uzur, which means “Nebo, protect the crown!” or the “frontiers.” In an inscription he styles himself “Nebo’s favourite.” He was the son and successor of…
Abed-Nego · .A Jewish — .A Jewish
Coercion · RELIGIOUS — RELIGIOUS
Furnace · into, by Nebuchadnezzar — into, by Nebuchadnezzar
Indictments · .Three Hebrew — .Three Hebrew
Meshach · A name given by the chief eu — A name given by the chief eu
Mishael · .Thrown into the fiery furnace — .Thrown into the fiery furnace
And these three men fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. The fire not so much as destroying what they were bound with, and much less them; but being bound they fell, and there they lay for the present, unbound and alive; when those that cast them in were destroyed. In the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, follow sixty seven verses, containing the song of Azariah and his companions in the furnace, which are not in the Hebrew text.
John Calvin on Daniel 3:21-23
Daniel 3:21-23
21. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
21. Tunc viri illi vincti sunt, vel, ligati, in suis chlamydibus, [189] et cum tiaris suis: [190] in vestitu suo: et projecti sunt in fornacem ignis ardentis.
22. Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
22. Propterea quod urgebat, vel, festinabat, ud verbum praeceptum regis, et fornacem vehementer jusserat accendi, viros illos qui extulerant Sadrach, Mesach, et Abed-nego occidit t kavilla, a…
דּי מן (because that), a further explanatory expression added to דּנה כּל־קבל (wholly for this cause): because the word of the king was sharp, and in consequence of it (ו), the furnace was heated beyond measure for that reason. The words אלּך גּבריּא (these mighty men) stand here in the status absol., and are again taken up in the pronoun המּון after the verb קטּל. If the three were brought up to the furnace, it must have had a mouth above, through which the victims could be cast into it. When heated to an ordinary degree, this could be done without danger to the men who performed this service; but in the present case the heat of the fire was so great, that the servants themselves perished b…
In the Greek version and the Latin Vulgate, The Prayer of Azariah and The Song of the Three Jews are inserted after 3:23 (see Daniel Book Introduction, “Author and Date”).
For the blessed Jeremiah in captivity was no less blessed, nor was Daniel, nor Ezra, nor the blessed Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, than if they had not fallen into captivity; for they were led into captivity in order to bring comfort to the people in their present circumstances, and to bring hope of escaping captivity. For it is the perfection of a virtuous man to sustain the fellowship of human nature with the courage of the mind, and to lead others to better things. They do not succumb to those things which seem terrible and fearful to most people, but rather, like a brave soldier, they endure the attacks of the gravest misfortunes and undergo conflicts, and like a wise helmsman, they steer the ship in the storm, avoiding shipwreck by plowing through the waves rather than by avoiding them. He is not fearful in persecution, nor softer in tortures, lest he provoke the one tormenting him: but rather like a strong athlete, who repels the one striking him, if not with slaughter, certainly with the whip of speech; who despises the tortures feared by many, saying: Their arrows have become the wounds of infants (Ps. 63:8); who, even when wrestling with the gravest of pains, does not present himself as pitiable; but rather shows himself like a light in a lantern, shining even amidst harsh storms and the most violent winds, and the strength of his soul cannot be extinguished. He is not soft in the face of injuries to his own, nor anxious about the tomb of his body, to which he knows heaven is owed; he is not more degraded in the captivity of the civic commoners; but like a strict judge, condemning the faithlessness and errors of the infidels, like Daniel who exposed the thefts of the priests and refuted their superstitions, showing that they were not based on any truth, but were overshadowed by deceit. Such a man is truly perfect, who desires to do good to all and for nothing bad to happen to anyone; and if anything happens against his will, he himself does not lose anything of his own happiness.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
· Spirit of — Exemplified: Chaldeans
— Spirit of — Exemplified: Chaldeans
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
