And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
These three men ... fell down - not cast down; because those who brought the three youths to the furnace perished by the flames themselves, and so could not cast them in. Here follows an addition in the Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and, Vulgate versions: 'The prayer of Azarias,' and 'The song of the three holy children.' It is not in the Chaldee. The hymn was sung throughout the whole Church in their liturgies from the earliest times (Rufinus in 'Symboli Apostolorum,' and Athanasius). The 'astonishment' of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:24 is made an argument for its genuineness, as if it explained the cause of his astonishment, namely, 'they walked in the midst of the fire praising God,' etc., 'but the angel of the Lord came down into the oven' (Daniel 3:1 and Daniel 3:27 of the apocryphal addition). But Daniel 3:25 of the English version explains his astonishment without need of any addition.