Discovery BoxDaniel 3:17 
Context3:17 If 1 our God whom we are serving exists, 2 he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well.
Daniel 3:19
Context3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed 3 toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders 4 to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated.
Daniel 3:22
Context3:22 But since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace was so excessively hot, the men who escorted 5 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were killed 6 by the leaping flames. 7
Daniel 3:26
Context3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire. He called out, 8 “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out! Come here!”
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire. 9
1 tc The ancient versions typically avoid the conditional element of v. 17.
2 tn The Aramaic expression used here is very difficult to interpret. The question concerns the meaning and syntax of אִיתַי (’itay, “is” or “exist”). There are several possibilities. (1) Some interpreters take this word closely with the participle later in the verse יָכִל (yakhil, “able”), understanding the two words to form a periphrastic construction (“if our God is…able”; cf. H. Bauer and P. Leander, Grammatik des Biblisch-Aramäischen, 365, §111b). But the separation of the two elements from one another is not an argument in favor of this understanding. (2) Other interpreters take the first part of v. 17 to mean “If it is so, then our God will deliver us” (cf. KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB). However, the normal sense of ’itay is existence; on this point see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 45, §95. The present translation maintains the sense of existence for the verb (“If our God…exists”), even though the statement is admittedly difficult to understand in this light. The statement may be an implicit reference back to Nebuchadnezzar’s comment in v. 15, which denies the existence of a god capable of delivering from the king’s power.
3 tn Aram “the appearance of his face was altered”; cf. NLT “his face became distorted with rage”; NAB “[his] face became livid with utter rage.”
4 tn Aram “he answered and said.”
5 tn Aram “caused to go up.”
6 tn The Aramaic verb is active.
7 tn Aram “the flame of the fire” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NRSV “the raging flames.”
8 tn Aram “answered and said.”
9 tn Aram “from the midst of the fire.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.
