Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (sometimes referred to collectively as The Three Young Men) were three young men from Judah brought into the court of King Nebuchadnezzar II during the first deportation of the Israelites[1]. Their Hebraic names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (respectively). Along with Daniel (Belteshazzar) these young men were said to be from the royal family or nobility of Judah[2] and were brought into King Nebuchadnezzar's court by Chief Official Asphenaz. These three are most noted for their part in the Biblical narrative of the fiery furnace.
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According to the book of Daniel, chapter 1, these three were brought from Judah into training in Babylon. During their training the four were set apart by Daniel's objection to their guard over consumption of the royal food and wine for fear of defiling themselves. Instead they asked to eat only vegetables and water. After protest their guardsman agreed to test them for a ten day trial period after which the four would be tested against the others who ate of the food and drink. According to Daniel, Chapter 1 - Verse 15, after the trial the four appeared better nourished and healthier than the others and were awarded the freedom to eat only the vegetables. At the end of their training when Nebuchadnezzar tested the multitude he found "none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah[3]."
During his reign, Nebuchadnezzar II erected a statue of himself (or possibly of the Babylonian god of wisdom, Nabu[4]) and made a decree which commanded all to fall and worship the monument when the instruments played. The consequence for not worshiping during the music was death by burning in the city furnace. During the dedication festival as the music played certain officials noticed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego not bowing down to the idol and alerted Nebuchadnezzar.
Enraged, the king questioned the three. He provided one more chance for them to bow to the image and they refused. They cited their reason to refuse as,
"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." [5] Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than average and had the three tossed into it. According to verse 22, it was so hot that it killed the soldiers who threw the three into the furnace. "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste: he spoke and said to his counselors, 'Didn’t we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?' They answered the king, 'True, O king.' He answered and said, Lo, 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. .'"[6] Nebuchadnezzar then ordered the three men to come out of the furnace, addressing them as 'servants of the Most High God.' [7] When they came out the next verses say that "the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them". [8]
It has been asserted that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's names all pertained to pagan Babylonian gods. Shadrach possibly is derived from Shudur Aku ("command of the moon god"). [9] Meshach, according to Easton's Bible Dictionary, was "probably the name of some Chaldean [that is, Babylonian] god."[10] Abednego means "Servant of Nego (that is, Nebo/Nabu, a Babylonian god)."[11] In view of the possible foreign religious connotations attached to their names, commentators have questioned why the Bible seldom uses their original Hebrew names. It is speculated that they are identified mostly by their Babylonian names to maintain the accuracy of the dialogue given in the text. Since it would have been confusing to have the writer call them one thing and the king call them another, the story uses their new names instead.
"We're just 3 M.C.'s and we're on the go
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego"
The song of the three youths is alluded to in odes seven and eight of the canon, a hymn sung in the matins service and on other occasions in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where their feast day is December 17 (along with Daniel). The Orthodox also commemorate them on the two Sundays before the Nativity of Christ. The reading of the story of the fiery furnace, including the song, is prescribed for the vesperal Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Orthodox on Holy Saturday. Likewise, the three are commemorated as prophets in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on December 17 with Daniel.
ABEDNEGO, the name given in Babylon to Azariah, one of the companions of Daniel (Dan. i. 7, &c.). It is probably a corruption, perhaps deliberate, of Abednebo, "servant of Nebo," though G. Hoffmann thinks that the original form was Abednergo, for Abednergal, "servant of the god Nergal." C. H. Toy compares Barnebo, "son of Nebo," of which he regards Barnabas as a slightly disguised form (Jewish Encyclopaedia).
Categories: A-ABO | Old Testament people
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From a Babylonian language.
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Abednego
Abednego is the Chaldee name given to Azariah, one of Daniel's three companions (Dan 2:49). With Shadrach and Meshach, he was set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, and was later delivered from the burning fiery furnace (Dan 3:12).
The name Abednego is evidently a corruption of Abed Nebo, "Servant of [the Babylonian god] Nebo," a name found (written in both the cuneiform and the Aramaic characters) in an inscription of the seventh century B.C. (Rawlinson, "Inscriptions of Western Asia," iii. 46, col. i. 81 et seq.), and in certain early Syriac documents (Payne-Smith, "Thesaurus"). It is probable that the substitution of Nego (so also all the old versions) for Nebo was intentional, the purpose being to disfigure, or to get rid of, the name of the heathen deity (See Kohler in "Zeitschrift für Assyriologie," iv. 49). Similarly, the name Barnabas appears to be a slightly disguised form of Barnebo, "Son of Nebo".
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