THE PRAYER OF AZARIAH
13, 1:66-68   The three men praise the Lord

66 "Bless the Lord, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael; 
sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever. 
For he has rescued us from Hades 
and saved us from the power of death, 
and delivered us from the midst of the burning fiery furnace; 
from the midst of the fire he has delivered us.  
67 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, 
for his mercy endures forever.  
68 All who worship the Lord, bless the God of gods, 
sing praise to him and give thanks to him, 
for his mercy endures forever."

Here the poem returns to its apocryphal scabbard, placing words into the mouths of the three men in the blazing fiery furnace. The words continue to be excellent. Verse 66 is the closest that the entire 68-verse document gets to following the usual rules or forms of Hebrew poetry. It is in fact written or presented in parallelism, but borrowing from Hebrew examples: 

"Rescued from Hades / saved from death" 
   = synonymous (Ps. 33:19)
"delivered from the furnace / from fire delivered us" 
   = synonymous (cp. Ps 144:7)
"Give thanks... his mercy endures forever" 
   = synthetic = Psalm 118:1
"Bless God of gods / sing praise" 
   = synthetic = Psalm 136:2

Hades is a Greek term (verse 66), and this gives away the date of the poem as being very, very late, perhaps the second century. It occurs in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Genesis 37:35), and in the New Testament Jesus and John use it as a parallel word to death or the grave (Matthew 16:18; Revelation  1:18; 6:8; 20:13-14). 

This sing is a blessing to God's people from the mind and pen of a believer. While it is not the inspired word of God, it is every much as helpful to faith and Christian living as any of the hymns and songs in our hymnals. May God bless us with this excursion into the glorious heights of praise. 

In Christ,
Pastor Tim Smith