Prayer of Azariah

What the Prayer of Azariah is about

This short text belongs inside a story most readers already know. In Daniel 3, three young men refuse to bow to the king’s golden statue and are thrown into a furnace; the king then sees a fourth figure walking with them in the fire. The Greek version of Daniel expands that scene, and this is the expansion.

It has two parts. The first is a prayer by Azariah — the Hebrew name of the man called Abednego — spoken from inside the furnace. It is not a plea for rescue. It is a confession: the nation has sinned, the judgment was just, and there is no temple left in which to offer sacrifice. What he offers instead is one of the most striking lines in this literature — a contrite heart and a humble spirit — asking that it be accepted as the offering.

The second part is the Song of the Three Young Men, a hymn of praise sung in the flames. It works through the whole of creation and calls each part to bless the Lord: the heavens, the sun and moon, showers and dew, frost and snow, nights and days, whales and everything that moves in the waters, birds, cattle, and finally the people of Israel. Anyone who has sung the Benedicite in an Anglican or Catholic service has sung this text.

Where it sits

In Catholic and Orthodox Bibles this material appears where it belongs, between verses 23 and 24 of Daniel 3, so the story reads continuously. Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha print it separately, which is why it appears here as a book of its own.

It is received as scripture by Catholic and Orthodox Christians as part of Daniel. Protestants value it but do not treat it as canonical.

Why it is worth reading

Because it answers a question the Hebrew text leaves open — what did they say in there? — and answers it with worship rather than complaint. The move from confession to a summons for the whole created order to praise God, made by three men standing in a fire, is one of the boldest gestures in this literature.