Chapter 63

¹ At that time, then, Azarias, standing forth together with the rest, made confession to God through hymn and prayer in the midst of the furnace.

² And first they recounted their own sins and those of their fathers, giving glory to God that they were suffering these things worthily and justly as captives in a foreign land, handed over to a king lawless and most wicked beyond all the earth, because their fathers had not kept the law of the Lord their God.

³ Then, summoning the whole creation as with one mouth, they hymned and glorified and blessed God, saying: “Blessed are You, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and to be praised and exalted above all forever.”

⁴ So then, beginning from the holy and glorious and magnificent Name, they came to the very works of the Lord, first naming the heavenly things, and glorified Him saying: “Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord; sing and exalt Him above all forever.”

⁵ Then in order all of them, summoning the seven heavens and the authorities and powers within them, and the water above the heaven, they came to the firmament and, naming the luminaries within it—sun and moon and stars—they said: “Bless the Lord, all you elements that move in the heaven; sing and exalt Him above all forever.”

⁶ Then they passed on to the changes of the air and the spirits which exist in the midst of the creation—winds, rains and snows, cold and heat, light and darkness, days and nights, and the things like them. Then they came to the foundation of the earth.

⁷ They began first from the very glory of God and glorified Him; then the things above the heaven, those called supramundane; then they named the firmament with the luminaries; then the things in the midst of the firmament;

⁸ then, turning to the earth, saying: “Let the earth bless the Lord; let it sing and exalt Him above all forever”; then mountains and hills; then all the things that grow in the earth.

⁹ Then they passed on to the waters—rivers and springs and seas; then the things that move in the waters, sea-monsters and fish; then the birds of heaven, cattle and wild beasts.

¹⁰ Then they passed on to the sons of men, offering up the hymn in order.

¹¹ Then they named the things beneath the earth, the spirits of the angels who keep Tartarus and the souls of the righteous, so that these too together with them might hymn God.

¹² And after completing all things, they named themselves last as least and lowly, saying: “Bless the Lord, O Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael; sing and exalt Him above all forever; for He has delivered us out of Hades and saved us from the hand of death, and rescued us out of the midst of the burning flame, and out of the midst of the fire He rescued us. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.”