Chapter 53
1 I will dare to say something, and I will run no risk in saying it: these men, having read the saying spoken by the prophet, knew that it had been written concerning them. For how did the saying speak to Babylon, “I will make mention of Rahab and of Babylon to those who know me,” unless he was foreseeing in the Spirit the mystery that was being dispensed there?
2 For these men, when they then saw all men worshiping the image and obeying the king’s command, set their minds to it, saying: “Not idly has this been written, brothers; perhaps it is now to be fulfilled in us.”
3 “For behold, it has come upon us: our whole race has been taken captive and has become enslaved to the Babylonians; Nebuchadnezzar tyrannizes over us like a great devil, and having made a golden image he compels us to commit idolatry.”
4 “Let us remain faithful unto death; let us not put to shame our teacher Moses, nor let our race be made a laughingstock; let the three of us conquer the whole power of the Babylonians. God will deliver us out of the hand of the king, as he delivered our fathers out of the hand of Pharaoh.”
5 “Let us remember the things done of old in the land of Egypt: how the sea, struck by the rod, was afraid, and the Jordan, beholding the ark, turned back; how Rahab the harlot, found faithful in the city of Jericho, was saved from the slaughter of the sword.”
6 “And now God is able easily to quench the fire of the furnace.”
7 “If he threatens death by the sword, let us endure it; if it is to be thrown to wild beasts, let us not cower before the beasts; let not the throng of the Babylonians conquer our faith.”
8 Exhorting one another like living athletes, they were led forward by the Spirit into the arena—three young men, contending against tens of thousands of unbelieving men.