For Whom And With What Object Written.
For Whom.
Undoubtedly for Jewish readers, who were already interested in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; designed for those who had Daniel's book in their hands, who felt the Three to be heroes rightly honoured.
Of course, if the words were really spoken by Azarias, they were for the honour of God and the benefit of himself and his companions in the fire; and the Song itself becomes a real thanksgiving, on the spur of the moment, for the literal fulfilment of such promises as Isai. xliii. 2—a form, for their own personal use, to express their immediate feelings.
Verse 24 (Ο´) might suggest the idea that the prayer (and perhaps the Song also) were uttered in the interval between the issue and the execution of the king's order for burning alive; but the words ἐν μέσῳ τῷ πυρί in v. 25 forbid this view. (As to a possible subsequent insertion of the prayer, see 'Integr. and State of Text,' p. 42.) Theodotion also precludes this idea by his insertion of ἐν μέσῳ τῆς φλογὸς in v. 24 itself, as well as ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ πυρὸς in v. 25. The slight change in the case of the last two words lessens the likelihood of their having been transferred from v. 25 of one version to v. 25 of the other. But it is quite possible that Θ may have purposely omitted the clause in v. 24 of Ο´, beginning ὅτε αὐτοὺς, in order to shut out the idea of these devotions having taken place in the interval suggested above.
Dean Farrar even says that the Song is "not very apposite" (Expositor's Bible, Daniel, Lond. 1895, p. 180), though other minds find it remarkably so. In writing on v. 27 (50) he erroneously substitutes νότιον for δρόσον. This is probably copied from Ball's note in loc. If the latter part of v. 66 (88) was in the original Song, the reference to their own position is of course apposite enough.
Even a writer of such a stamp as Albert Barnes (Comm. on Dan. iii. 23) is obliged to confess that "with some things that are improbable and absurd, the Song contains many things that are beautiful and that would be highly appropriate if a song had been uttered at all in the furnace." But to a contrary effect J. Kennedy goes even further than Dean Farrar, calling it "an elaborate composition by some one whose imagination failed to realise what was fitting and natural to men in the position of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace" (Dan. from a Christian Standpoint, 1898, p. 55).
The passage vv. 26 to 34 is provided in Littledale's Priest's P.B. (1876, p. 95) as a suitable Scripture reading for those "in fever." Although there is a kind of appropriateness in the narrative of the fire being driven off, many would regard this application of the extract as highly fanciful, and not quite agreeable to the object with which the piece was written.