We must, therefore, date it after the Maccabæan struggle, probably soon after, on account of its jubilant tone. Like the Prayer, this Song was written in Hebrew, though the arguments for a Greek original in both cases cannot be lightly dismissed. Why it came to be placed in its present position can be quite naturally accounted for; it was due to the desire to put into the mouth of the Three Children a hymn of blessing and glory to God for their wonderful deliverance. It must have been put into its present place subsequently to the Prayer, but as regards its further history one must hazard a conjecture similar to that mentioned above in reference to the Prayer. It is also highly probable that, like the Prayer, the Song was used in public worship. For the _form_ in which it is composed one should compare two liturgical pieces preserved in the modern Jewish Liturgy, viz. the “Abinu Malkenu” (Our Father, our King)[415] and the “Order of counting the Omer”[416]; both differ wholly in content from that of the Song, but the liturgical form is similar in each case. See also the “Psalm of Thanksgiving” which occurs in Ecclesiasticus li. after verse 12 (only preserved in the Hebrew), and compare with it the “Shemoneh ‘Esreh” in the Jewish Liturgy (Singer, _Op. cit._, pp. 44 ff.).[417] That the Song, when one remembers its history—and if we are right in believing that it was at one time used in public worship by the Jews—has been incorporated into the English Church Liturgy seems to be only in the fit and natural order of things. IV. THE STORY OF SUSANNA The position of this addition varies in the manuscripts; in some it precedes the first chapter of the canonical Daniel; this is the case in the uncials, while in the one manuscript extant of the Septuagint proper which contains it, it forms chapter xiii. of that book.