Peace now seems to be restored to the kingdom. The troublemakers have been removed from the scene, because it is impossible that they would survive this. Nebuchadnezzar looks at the furnace again. The king, who thinks he is in fact untouchable, is startled. He can hardly believe what he is seeing. Is what he is seeing really true? It is not an optical illusion, is it? He sees something that makes him very uneasy. He even checks with his chief advisors whether he ordered three men to be thrown into the fire and he receives an affirmative answer to his query.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”