“Now the king’s servants,
Who threw them in,
Kept stoking
The furnace
With naphtha,
Pitch,
Tow,
Brushwood.
The flames
Poured out
Above the furnace,
Forty-nine cubits.
The flames
Spread out.
They burned
Those Chaldeans
Who were caught
Near the furnace.”
Originally, the king’s servants who threw the 3 men into the furnace had died because of the flames. Either they were still alive or there were other servants to keep the fire in the furnace going. Here those same servants or other servants were also burned because the flames were 49 cubits or over 75 feet high. They were adding naphtha, pitch, tow, and brushwood to the fire. Naphtha and pitch were like peat coal or a flammable tar base. Tow and brushwood were woods that easily burned.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 