The Aramaic word esh is the cognate of Hebrew esh and means fire. It appears in the Aramaic sections of Daniel, most memorably in the account of the three men in the fiery furnace — a foundational story of faith under persecution and divine deliverance.
Fire throughout Scripture represents both divine judgment and divine presence. The same fire that was intended to destroy the three Hebrew men became the furnace in which they walked freely with a fourth figure — 'like a son of the gods.' God's presence in fire (burning bush, pillar of fire, Sinai, Pentecost) is simultaneously purifying and protecting. The story in Daniel 3 stands as Scripture's most dramatic depiction of God's preservation of His faithful ones through the fires of persecution.