Chapter 50

¹ Then certain of the Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews to the king: “You, O king, have set forth a decree that every man who hears the sound of the trumpet, the pipe and the lyre, the sambuke and the psaltery and the symphony and every kind of music, and does not fall down and worship the golden image, shall be cast into the burning fiery furnace. Now there are certain men, Jews, whom you appointed over the works of the country of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego—who have not obeyed your decree, O king; they do not serve your gods, and they do not worship the golden image which you set up.” Then the king, hearing this, in fury and wrath ordered them to be brought, and answering he said, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and do not worship the golden image which I set up? Now then, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, the pipe and the lyre, the sambuke and the psaltery and every kind of music, fall down and worship the golden image; but if not, in that very hour you shall be cast into the burning fiery furnace—and who is the god that shall deliver you out of my hands?”