3:28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, 4 “Praised be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent forth his angel 5 and has rescued his servants who trusted in him, ignoring 6 the edict of the king and giving up their bodies rather than 7 serve or pay homage to any god other than their God!
1 sn The phrase like that of a god is in Aramaic “like that of a son of the gods.” Many patristic writers understood this phrase in a christological sense (i.e., “the Son of God”). But it should be remembered that these are words spoken by a pagan who is seeking to explain things from his own polytheistic frame of reference; for him the phrase “like a son of the gods” is equivalent to “like a divine being.”
2 tn Aram “in their bodies.”
3 tn Aram “the fire did not have power.”
4 tn Aram “answered and said.”
5 sn The king identifies the “son of the gods” (v. 25) as an angel. Comparable Hebrew expressions are used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for the members of God’s angelic assembly (see Gen 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Pss 29:1; 89:6). An angel later comes to rescue Daniel from the lions (Dan 6:22).
6 tn Aram “they changed” or “violated.”
7 tn Aram “so that they might not.”