“... At this point, the speech moves from a list of paradigms to a chain of scriptural quotations. The order of the quotations appears to be not haphazard but highly significant, as the author builds up a ‘case’ on the strength of written authorities that would support a person facing, and choosing, endurance of hardship for the sake of covenant loyalty. First, the author recites Septuagint Isaiah 43:2 in a slightly abbreviated fashion. Isaiah 43:2 reads καὶ ἐὰν διέλθῃς διὰ πυρὸς οὐ μὴ κατακαυθῇς φλὸξ οὐ κατακαύσει σὲ. The author has omitted οὐ μὴ κατακαυθῇς and transposed διέλθης διὰ πυρός, perhaps to emphasize the ‘fire’ that has been so prominent in the scenes of torture by placing it first. The verse might also have been suggested to the author as a starting point for his catena of Scriptural citations by the invocation yet again of the example of the three young men ‘in the fire’ (18:12; compare 13:9; 16:3, 21) ...”