Chapter 72

¹ Thus then Nebuchadnezzar answered and said: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and delivered his servants because they trusted in him, and they set aside the king’s word and gave up their bodies, so that they would not serve any god but their own God. And I make a decree: every people, tribe, and tongue that speaks blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall come to ruin, and their houses to plunder; for there is no other God who can deliver in this way.” And he advanced Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon, and increased them, and counted them worthy to rule over all the Jews who were in his kingdom. —

² We must therefore observe, beloved, how great a grace faith toward God provides.

³ For just as they glorified God himself by giving themselves up to death, so in turn they too were glorified not only by God but also by the king, and they taught the foreign and barbarian nations to worship God.

⁴ And indeed it is possible to grasp that this is happening even now. For whenever one of the saints is called to martyrdom and some great deeds are wrought upon him by God, immediately all who see are amazed, and many, having believed through them, themselves likewise become martyrs of God.

⁵ In whom we too, having believed, let us present ourselves worthy to God, living soberly in body and soul and spirit, so that we too, receiving the crown of incorruption together with the blessed martyrs, may with them sing the praise of God. For to him is the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.