Verses 17 and 18 may be understood and translated in two radically different ways. The first takes the If it be so as meaning “If we are thrown into the fire” or “If the king’s sentence is carried out” and pictures the three young men as being perfectly confident that God will be able to deliver them. This understanding is clearly brought out in the New International Version rendering of these verses as well as in Bible en français courant. The second possibility, reflected in Good News Translation, New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version, and New Jerusalem Bible, indicates some doubt on the part of the young men as to whether God will be willing or capable of saving them from the fire. Against this view, the idea that God may not be able to save those who are faithful to him would, according to some writers, be quite surprising in a book like Daniel. For this reason some translators and commentators prefer the first interpretation. On the other hand, it is a fact that Jewish people were sometimes put to death and not saved from their oppressors. Also the words But if not at the beginning of verse 18 would make no sense as the contrary of the “if” clause in verse 17. The majority of modern English commentaries therefore tend toward this second interpretation. It is quite possible, as one commentator points out, that the young men “do not doubt the power of their God to deliver them from the king’s furnace, but they have no right to presume that he will do so” (Baldwin). We may therefore translate “if he will not…” or “if he does not…” rather than “if he can not….”

A third possibility, slightly different from the second, focuses on the existence or nonexistence of a God capable of saving, and yields the meaning “If there is a god who is able to save us from the blazing furnace, it is our God whom we serve…” (New English Bible/Revised English Bible). There is also considerable linguistic evidence in favor of this interpretation. But the second interpretation is probably best (Towner).

Serve: see verses 12 and 14.

Gods: Good News Translation has “god” in the singular. See verse 12.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René & Ellington, John. A Handbook on Daniel. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .