Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm.

¹ ¶ O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he has done marvellous things; his right hand has gotten him the victory, even the arm of his holiness.

² The LORD has made known his saving health; he has openly showed his righteousness in the sight of the Gentiles.

³ He has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the saving health of our God.

⁴ ¶ Sing with joy unto the LORD, all the earth; lift up thy voice and rejoice and sing praises.

⁵ Sing praises unto the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the voice of a song.

⁶ With trumpets and the sound of the shofar make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

⁷ Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof, the world and those that dwell therein.

⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands; let the mountains be joyful together

⁹ before the LORD; for he has come to judge the earth; with righteousness he shall judge the world and the peoples with equity.

¹⁹ ¶ Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; therefore he spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was customary to be heated.

²⁰ And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

²¹ Then these men were bound in their coats, their undergarments, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

²² Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

²³ And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

²⁴ Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste and spoke and said unto his counsellors, Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.

²⁵ He answered and said, Behold, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

²⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.

²⁷ And the great ones, the governors and the captains and the king’s counsellors gathered together to see these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

²⁸ ¶ Then Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of these, of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the king’s word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God

²⁹ Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, or language which speak blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill because there is no other god that can deliver after this sort.

³⁰ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.

²¹ And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with impetus shall that great city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all.

²² And the voice of harpers and musicians and of pipers and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatever craft he is, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

²³ and the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the princes of the earth in whose witchcraft all the Gentiles have erred.

²⁴ And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth.