Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm.

98 Sing ye unto Jehovah a new song: for he hath done wondrous things; his right hand and his holy arm hath wrought salvation for him.

² Jehovah hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the nations.

³ He hath remembered his loving-kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴ Shout aloud unto Jehovah, all the earth; break forth and shout for joy, and sing psalms.

⁵ Sing psalms unto Jehovah with the harp: with the harp, and the voice of a song;

⁶ With trumpets and sound of cornet, make a joyful noise before the King, Jehovah.

⁷ Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein;

⁸ Let the floods clap [their] hands; let the mountains sing for joy together,

⁹ Before Jehovah, for he cometh to judge the earth: he will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

¹⁹ Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. He spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

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

²¹ Then these men were bound in their hosen, their tunics, and their cloaks, and their garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

²² Forasmuch as the king's commandment was rigorous, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that had taken up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

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

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

²⁵ He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of God.

²⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the opening of the burning fiery furnace; he spoke and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come [hither]. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came forth from the midst of the fire.

²⁷ And the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had had no power, nor was the hair of their head singed, neither were their hosen changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them.

²⁸ Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and who 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 in every people, nation, and language, he who shall speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and his house shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that is able to deliver after this sort.

³⁰ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the province of Babylon.

²¹ And a strong angel took up a stone, as a great millstone, and cast [it] into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall Babylon the great city be cast down, and shall be found no more at all;

²² and voice of harp-singers and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters shall not be heard any more at all in thee, and no artificer of any art shall be found any more at all in thee, and voice of millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee,

²³ and light of lamp shall shine no more at all in thee, and voice of bridegroom and bride shall be heard no more at all in thee; for thy merchants were the great ones of the earth; for by thy sorcery have all the nations been deceived.

²⁴ And in her was found [the] blood of prophets and saints, and of all the slain upon the earth.