Did the 3 Hebrew children say they would not worship the image, even if God would not deliver them?
Dan 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Dan 3:15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
To paraphrase and explain, with my comments in bold, underlined:
Dan 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Dan 3:15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17 If it be so - meaning, if you throw us into the furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18 But if not - meaning, if you do not throw us into the furnace, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
The conventional explanation of the meaning of the phrase including the word if, in verses 17 and 18, is that the meaning is if the king throws us into the furnace, and if God doesn't deliver.
However, the better meaning is if the King throws us into the furnace, and if the king doesn't throw us into the furnace. Here's why.
Reason 1
If Dan 3:18 means "if God doesn't deliver us," then this contradicts the previous verse! which said "he (God) will deliver us out of thine hand, O king."
So, in actuality, they are saying,
If you throw us in, God will deliver us - and if you don't throw us in, we still refuse to worship the idol.
Reason 2
The conventional explanation is that God will deliver us if you throw us in the furnace, and if he doesn't deliver us, we still won't bow or worship the image.
However, if God didn't deliver them, they probably wouldn't be alive to decide to bow or not. So this doesn't make sense.
Per the conventional explanation:
"But if God does not deliver us [Edit: which won't be known til after we get thrown into the furnace], be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. "
This conventional interpretation implies that they won't know whether God will deliver them until after they are actually thrown into the fiery furnace.
So then, after it becomes known to them (per the conventional interpretation) that God does not deliver them (since they do get thrown into the furnace), they will then not worship the image. This non-deliverance would be known to them only after they were thrown into the furnace, so they would be saying that if God does not deliver us and we are thrown into the furnace, then - after being thrown into the furnace - we will not worship the image. But, their refusal to worship the image is the reason they would be thrown into the furnace! This refusal then has to be before, not after, they are thrown into the furnace.
So they are saying, if we refuse to worship, and get thrown into the furnace, and we see that God is not delivering us, then we will refuse to worship... though they already have refused!
In this case, if God did not deliver them, they probably would not be alive to worship (or to choose not to worship) anyway, so this also does not make sense logically.
Reason 3
A 3rd reason is the nature of God, the goodness of God, that He wants us to believe about him - see Numbers 14 - to believe that God will deliver from the giants, or in this case, the fiery furnace.
Reason 4
Parallel structure - "if it be so" refers to being thrown into the furnace, so "if not" would also likewise refer to (not) being thrown into the furnace.
Reason 5
The only possible and obvious antecedent for for the word it in verse 17 is what is stated in verse 15.
Summary
There are problems with the common conventional interpretation below:
If you throw us in, God is able to deliver us.
- and -
If God does not deliver us, we still refuse to worship the image.
However, the interpretation
If you throw us in, God will deliver us.
- and -
If you don't throw us in, we still refuse to worship the image.
makes sense. There are no logical problems.
This is how it seems to me - thoughts?