A fragmentary poetic version of a biblical narrative,

translates the prayers of Azarias (Abednego) and his two companions Misael (Misach) and Ananias (Sidrach), three Jewish youths who, in chapter three of the Book of Daniel, are cast into a furnace by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar for refusing to worship his idol. The text as it survives in the Exeter Book has a lacuna (although probably not a large one) in the middle, but we appear to have what the copyist considered the beginning and end of the poem. The poem as a whole seems, then, not to have followed a large part of the Book of Daniel, but simply provides the prayers of Azarias and his companions (which appear in the Vulgate version of the Book of Daniel) with a small amount of contextualising narrative. The poem…

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Citation: Shaw, Philip A.. "Azarias". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11677, accessed 03 December 2024.]

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