The three companions of DANIEL — Judean youths whose Hebrew names, HANANIAH ('Jehovah is gracious'), MISHAEL ('who is what God is'), and AZARIAH ('Jehovah has helped'), each carried the name of the true God, and who were renamed in Babylon Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, names bound to Babylonian gods (1:6-7). Set over the province of Babylon at Daniel's request (2:49), they are the heroes of chapter 3: refusing to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, they are thrown into the fiery furnace and walk unburned with a fourth figure 'like a son of the gods' — 'our God is able to deliver us; but if not, we will not serve your gods' (3:17-18).