Fiery Furnace

The story of the Fiery Furnace, which appears in the Book of Daniel, involves Daniel's three friends--Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. Those were their Chaldean names. Their Hebrew names were Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah. The three boys were taken from their homes, along with Daniel, to Babylonia, to become servants to King Nebuchadnezzar.

Despite the Chaldean education they received, these young Hebrews were strongly attached to the religion of their father, and Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego's refusal to join in the worship of the image on the plain of Dura aroused the anger of the king. He placed a swift sentence upon the three offenders, and ordered his men to toss them into a fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. The men who placed the three in the furnace were burned to death, but the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego protected them, and they emerged from the flames unharmed.

These illustrations of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego and the miracle of the Fiery Furnace are from several biblical texts. Feel free to use these fiery furnace pictures in your artwork. Click on the drawings below to see more details about saving a free image or about purchasing an image of the three young men and the fiery furnace at a higher resolution.