And now we can't open our mouths, we are become a shame and reproach to your servants; and to them that worship you.
All Commentaries on Daniel 3:33 Go To Daniel 3
John Chrysostom
AD 407
“And I said, Woe is me, I am stunned, because though I am a man with unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, I have seen with my eyes the Lord of Sabaoth.” The vision astonished the prophet, it caused him suddenly to start, it threw him into great fear, it moved him to a confession, it disposed him to know the faintheartedness of his own being more clearly. All the saints are like this: the more they are honored, precisely then do they humble themselves the more. Thus also Abraham, when he spoke with God, called himself dirt and dust. And Paul, when he was honored by receiving that vision, called himself an abnormal birth. Therefore this prophet also declares his own meanness, first because of his nature, saying, “Woe is me, I am stunned, because I am a man,” and then because of the state of his soul, “And I have unclean lips.” I believe he called his lips impure in comparison with the fervent mouths of those pure powers and with the service they rendered with the utmost exactness. He did not stop here but makes his confession for the whole people, adding the words, “I live among a people of impure lips.” And why does he accuse his lips? To show his inability to speak freely. Given that the three young men said practically the same thing in the furnace—“We cannot open our mouths”—here also, which was a moment for hymns and praise (and indeed he saw the heavenly powers just doing this), it is right that he speaks of his lips, which above all else are called to that ministry.
