1. The three young men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, started walking about in the flames, singing hymns to God, and praising him as Lord.
2. Then Azariah stood still and there in the fire he prayed aloud:
3. “O Lord, the God of our ancestors, we praise and adore you; may your name be honoured for ever.
4. You have treated us as we deserve. In everything you have done to us you are always honest, and when you bring us to judgement, you are always fair.
5. You did what was right when you brought disaster upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our ancestors. We deserved that judgement because of our sins.
6. We disobeyed you, we turned our backs on you, and we are guilty of every sin.
7. We did not do the things that you commanded us to do. If we had obeyed your laws, we would have prospered,
8. but now we deserve the judgement and punishment that you have brought upon us.
9. You have handed us over to lawless, hateful, and defiant enemies — to the most wicked king in the world.
10. And now all of us who worship you are humiliated; we are too ashamed to open our mouths.
11. “Yet for the sake of your own honour, do not break your covenant with us and abandon us for ever.
12. Do not withhold your mercy from us. Keep your promises to Abraham, whom you loved, to Isaac, your servant, and to Jacob, the father of your holy people Israel.
13. You promised to give them as many descendants as the stars in the sky or as the grains of sand along the seashore.
14. But now, Lord, we are fewer in number than any other nation; wherever we are, we live in disgrace because of our sins.