We Will Not Serve Your Gods

⁸ For this reason at that time certain ^(A)Chaldeans came near and ^[a](B)brought charges against the Jews. ⁹ They answered and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king: “^(C)O king, live forever! ¹⁰ You, O king, have ^(D)made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, ^[b]lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe and all kinds of music, is to ^(E)fall down and worship the golden image. ¹¹ But whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire. ¹² There are certain Jews whom you have ^(F)appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. These men, O king, do not pay attention to you; they do not serve your gods and do not worship the golden image which you have set up.”

¹⁹ But when her masters saw that their hope of ^(A)profit had left, they seized ^(B)Paul and Silas and ^(C)dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities, ²⁰ and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, ²¹ and ^(D)are proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being ^(E)Romans.”