Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

63 Unto the end, a psalm for David.

² Hear, O God, my prayer, when I make supplication to thee: deliver my soul from the fear of the enemy.

³ Thou hast protected me from the assembly of the malignant; from the multitude of the workers of iniquity.

⁴ For they have whetted their tongues like a sword; they have bent their bow a bitter thing,

⁵ To shoot in secret the undefiled.

⁶ They will shoot at him on a sudden, and will not fear: they are resolute in wickedness. They have talked of hiding snares; they have said: Who shall see them?

⁷ They have searched after iniquities: they have failed in their search. Man shall come to a deep heart:

⁸ And God shall be exalted. The arrows of children are their wounds:

¹⁹ Then was Nabuchodonosor filled with fury: and the countenance of his face was changed against Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, and he commanded that the furnace should be heated seven times more than it had been accustomed to be heated.

²⁰ And he commanded the strongest men that were in his army, to bind the feet of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, and to cast them into the furnace of burning fire.

²¹ And immediately these men were bound and were cast into the furnace of burning fire, with their coats, and their caps, and their shoes, and their garments.

²² For the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace was heated exceedingly. And the flame of the fire slew those men that had cast in Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago.

²³ But these three men, that is, Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, fell down bound in the midst of the furnace of burning fire.

²⁴ And they walked in the midst of the flame, praising God and blessing the Lord.

²⁵ Then Azarias standing up prayed in this manner, and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire, he said:

²⁶ Blessed art thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and thy name is worthy of praise, and glorious for ever:

²⁷ For thou art just in all that thou hast done to us, and all thy works are true, and thy ways right, and all thy judgments true.

²⁸ For thou hast executed true judgments in all the things that thou hast brought upon us, and upon Jerusalem the holy city of our fathers: for according to truth and judgment, thou hast brought all these things upon us for our sins.

²⁹ For we have sinned, and committed iniquity, departing from thee: and we have trespassed in all things:

³⁰ And we have not hearkened to thy commandments, nor have we observed nor done as thou hadst commanded us, that it might go well with us.

⁸ And to the angel of the church of Smyrna write: These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead, and is alive:

⁹ I know thy tribulation and thy poverty, but thou art rich: and thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰ Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison that you may be tried: and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful until death: and I will give thee the crown of life.

¹¹ He, that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: He that shall overcome, shall not be hurt by the second death.