True; not fickle, and liable to change. (Calmet) --- Opera mutas non mutas consilium. (St. Augustine, Confessions i. 4.) --- Cappel. argues from this confession, that the piece is not divine, as they would rather have burst out into expressions of admiration, as they do in the canticle below. But they had done so already, (ver. 26) and make this confession, (Haydock) as Daniel does, Chap. ix.; reflecting, that if the nation had not transgressed, they would not thus have been exposed to the fury of the king. (Houbigant. v. 40.) (Haydock) Thee. Pagans take occasion to vilify our religion. Sake. This disinterested motive is often urged. (Joshua vii. 9. and 2 Machabees viii. 15.) (Calmet) One. Moses used the like terms, and pacified God. (Exodus xxxii.) (Worthington) Thee, in Jerusalem, (Haydock) or Judea. There were chiefs and judges, (Chap. xiii.) as well as prophets, (Ezechiel, &c.) among the captives. Yet the republic was in disorder. (Calmet) --- Sedecias was dead, Joakim in prison, so that no Jewish king ruled over the people; nor was there any prophet in the promised land, Jeremias being either dead or in Egypt. (Worthington) --- Prophets were at least very rare. (Menochius) Sacrifice of ourselves. (Haydock) --- They knew not yet whether they would escape. When they beheld the angel they had greater confidence, and broke forth into a hymn of praise. (Houbigant.) --- They now offer all they can, a humble heart! Name, by rescuing us, that all may confess thy power. (Calmet) Brimstone. Literally, naphtha, (Haydock) or bitumen, which was very inflammable. --- Tow, besmeared with pitch. (Calmet) --- Dry (malleolis) "bundles" of sticks, or ropes, covered with pitch. (Haydock) --- Manipuli spart\'9ci pice contecti. (Nonius.) Furnace. These might be other victims, (Haydock) or he recapitulates what had been said ver. 22, (Calmet) which is by no means unusual, though Cappel. would hence reject the piece. (Houbigant.) CHAPTER III. Furnace: so that it destroyed the Chaldeans, while it had no power to hurt God's servants. The operation of the laws nature was thus only restrained. (Haydock) Temple; heaven, styled the throne, ver. 54. The temple was now in ruins. Depths, from whom nothing is hidden. --- Cherubims, as on thy chariot. Spirits: winds. Angels and men are mentioned elsewhere. (Calmet) --- They rejoice that the angels always praise God, and wish that all would strive to imitate them. (Worthington) Heat. Winter and summer. Some copies have, \'e6stas. (Calmet) Darkness. The privation of light has its use, and invites men to praise. (St. Augustine, de nat. Boni. 16.) (Worthington) Souls, in a separate state. Angels are invited before. (Calmet) Ananias, &c. They retain their Hebrew names, despising those imposed by the Chaldeans, with their impious manners. (Chap. i. 7.) The inanimate creation is invited to praise God in its way, (Psalm cxlviii.) as well as those endued with reason. The former never refuse obedience. (Haydock) --- Hell: the grave. (Calmet) And ever. "Hitherto does not occur in Hebrew; and what we have written, is translated from the edition of Theodotion." (St. Jerome, ver. 24.) Then hearing these praises, and seeing people walking in the fire. Grabe's edition after ver. 24, has only, "And Nabuchodonosor heard them singing hymns, and was, " &c. The son, or rather (Haydock) "a son;" Greek: nio. (Lowth's Gram.) --- He supposed this was some angel or petty god, like Hercules. (Denis the Carthusian) --- It was the same angel who descended (Worthington) with them ver. 49. Some have taken him for Jesus Christ. But St. Augustine observes, that most of these apparitions were made by angels, (Trin. iii. 11.) who are often styled "sons of God." (Job i. 6.) (Tirinus; Calmet) Smell, such as is felt when people, (Haydock) or their garments, come too near the fire. Pagans have sometimes walked through fire; but they first anointed their feet with certain preservatives, as Servius (in Virgil, \'c6neid xi.) remarks from Varro. (Calmet) --- Here the fire burnt only the bands, (ver. 23, 92.; Haydock) God making his creatures afford comfort to his servants, as was the case when the Goths attempted to burn St. Benedict. (St. Gregory, Dial. iii. 18.) (Worthington)