ago: these men, O
king, have slighted thy decree: they worship not thy gods, nor do they
adore the golden statue which thou hast set up.

3:13. Then Nabuchodonosor in fury, and in wrath, commanded that Sidrach,
Misach, ad Abdenago should be brought: who immediately were brought
before the king.

3:14. And Nabuchodonosor, the king, spoke to them, and said: Is it true,
O Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, that you do not worship my gods, nor
adore the golden statue that I have set up?

3:15. Now, therefore, if you be ready, at what hour soever, you shall
hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, harp, sackbut, and psaltery, and
symphony, and of all kind of music, prostrate yourselves, and adore the
statue which I have made: but if you do not adore, you shall be cast the
same hour into the furnace of burning fire: and who is the God that
shall deliver you out of my hand?

3:16. Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, answered, and said to king
Nabuchodonosor: We have no occasion to answer thee concerning this
matter.

3:17. For behold our God, whom we worship, is able to save us from the
furnace of burning fire, and to deliver us out of thy hands, O king.

3:18. But if he will not, be it known to thee, O king, that we will not
worship thy gods, nor adore the golden statue which thou hast set up.

3:19. Then was Nabuchodonosor filled with fury: and the countenance of
his face was changed against Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, and he
commanded that the furnace should be heated seven times more than it had
been accustomed to be heated.

3:20. And he commanded the strongest men that were in his army, to bind
the feet of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, and to cast them into the
furnace of burning fire.

3:21. And immediately these men were bound, and were cast into the
furnace of burning fire, with their coats, and their caps, and their
shoes, and their garments.

3:22. For the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace was heated
exceedingly. And the flame of the fire slew those men that had cast in
Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago.

3:23. But these three men, that is, Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, fell
down bound in the midst of the furnace of burning fire.

3:24. And they walked in the midst of the flame, praising God, and
blessing the Lord.

And they walked, etc... Here St. Jerome takes notice, that from this
verse, to ver. 91, was not in the Hebrew in his time. But as it was in
all the Greek Bibles, (which were originally