A prayer and a hymn from inside the furnace · Greek addition to Daniel, c. 2nd century BC
Song of the Three
Three men are thrown into a fire, and the Greek Daniel lets us hear what they sang there.
- 1Chapter
- 68Verses
- c. 200-100 BCEWritten
Original language: Greek (Susanna and Bel originally); Hebrew/Aramaic substrate for Prayer of Azariah
King James Version Apocrypha (1769 standardized text) · public domain
Read Song of the Three
King James Version + Apocrypha (standardized 1769 text), eBible.org USFX edition of the Crosswire/eBible KJV — Public Domain — One of the three Additions to Daniel; in the Greek Daniel it stands inside chapter 3.
Plain answers first
What this book is
This short piece belongs inside the story of Daniel 3. In the Hebrew and Aramaic Daniel, the three young men go into the furnace and come out again with nothing said in between. In the Greek Daniel, sixty-eight verses fill that silence.
First Azariah, the man the Babylonians renamed Abednego, prays. He does not protest that the punishment is unfair. He confesses the sins of his people, admits the exile was just, and offers the only sacrifice he has left: a broken spirit and a humbled heart.
A short narrator's section follows. The servants pile on fuel until the flame shoots far above the furnace and kills the men standing outside, while an angel comes down and makes the inside of the furnace like a damp, whistling wind.
Then the three sing together. The hymn calls on everything that exists to bless the Lord, one line at a time: angels, sun and moon, rain and dew, frost and fire, whales, birds, cattle, and finally the people of God. The church has sung it for centuries under the name Benedicite, meaning bless ye, in morning prayer.
The piece is usually dated to the second century BC and survives in Greek, though a Hebrew or Aramaic original for the prayer is possible.
The canon question, honestly
Why it stands outside the 66
This section is not in the Hebrew and Aramaic Daniel that Jewish tradition preserved. It appears only in the Greek versions of Daniel. Jerome kept the addition in his Latin Bible but marked it with a symbol to warn readers that it was not in the Hebrew, and he said so in his preface. The Reformers, holding to the Hebrew text of Daniel, moved it out to the apocrypha. Rome affirmed it at Trent as part of Daniel, and Orthodox churches read it too. Notice that the disagreement is not about whether the story of Daniel 3 happened, but about which edition of Daniel the church received.
Why a student of the 66 should still open it
Why read it — and how
As a devotional text it is one of the great ones. The Benedicite has been sung in Christian worship since at least the fourth century, and it stands in the Book of Common Prayer as an option at Morning Prayer to this day. Read it beside Psalm 148, which does the same work in fewer words, and beside the three young men's actual answer in Daniel 3:17-18. It also shows something important about Jewish faith under persecution: the first move is repentance, not complaint.
Read Daniel 3:19-23 in your Bible, then stop, read this piece, then read Daniel 3:24 onward. It is one chapter of one book, so read it in a single sitting. Read the hymn out loud if you can; it was made for voices, not eyes.
Doors into the text
Key moments
Verses 1-10. In the middle of the fire he confesses his nation's sin rather than pleading his own innocence.
Verses 15-17. With no temple and no sacrifice, he offers a contrite heart, the same logic as Psalm 51:17.
Verses 23-27. The flames kill the men outside while the inside is made like a moist, whistling wind.
Verses 28-34. The hymn opens, the Benedicite that the church has sung at morning prayer for centuries.
Verses 35-59. Sun, moon, frost, fire, whales, birds, and every green thing are summoned to praise, line after line.
Verses 66-68. The three finally name themselves, thanking God for pulling them out of the fire.
The disagreement is old — here it is plainly
Where the traditions stand
| Tradition | Where this book stands |
|---|---|
| jewish | not canonical; Hebrew original (if any) lost |
| anglican | apocryphal — read for example of life and instruction of manners |
| catholic | canonical (deuterocanonical; Daniel 3, 13, 14 in Vulgate) |
| protestant | non-canonical; retained in Luther's 1534 Apocrypha |
| eastern orthodox | canonical (anagignoskomena) |
| oriental orthodox | canonical |