Daniel 6
Daniel, off the lion menu
Daniel, the Persian Jew
1Darius [1] organized his new empire into 120 provinces, each led by a governor known as a satrap. [2] 2He put three top administrators in charge of these provinces. Daniel was one of them. Each of the 120 governors reported to these three officials.3Daniel distinguished himself above all other officials in the kingdom. He had a welcoming spirit about him. So the king decided to promote him to top administrator. Daniel would run the entire kingdom as the king’s number one official.
4But some of the officials and governors didn’t want the king to do that. [3] So they started looking for something that would disqualify Daniel for the job. They didn’t find anything. No corruption, negligence, or complaints. He was a devoted assistant to the king. 5They said, “So much for that. We’re not going to have any luck at this unless we can find something in the laws of his God that clashes with our laws.”
Persians set a prayer trap for Daniel
6So, the top officials with some governors found what they were looking for and they took it to the king. They said, “May our king, Darius, live forever. 7Your officials, including top the administrators, province governors, city prefects, and royal advisors all agree you should issue one particular decree. You should order everyone to pray to you, and no one but you, for the next 30 days. Add that people who break the law will be thrown to the lions.8Also, you should also make it an irrevocable law, like some of the ones we have among the Medes and Persians.” 9So, the king signed the order making it an irrevocable law.
Gotcha: Daniel doesn’t pray to the king
10Daniel knew about the king’s new law, but it didn’t matter to him. He went upstairs in his home, opened a window facing west to Jerusalem, and got down on his knees to pray. [4] He prayed three times a day, [5] each time facing Jerusalem [6]—as he had always done.11Officials who had pitched the idea to the king spied on Daniel until they caught him praying for God’s help. [7] 12They went to the king and said, “Our king, didn’t you sign that decree ordering people to pray to no one but you, at risk of getting thrown to the lions?” The king said, “Yes. It’s an irrevocable law like those among Medes and Persians.”
13The officials said, “Oh. But Daniel is ignoring you and your law. He’s one of those exiles we brought here from Judah. He prays three times a day.”
14When the king heard that, he figured out what was going on. Deeply upset, he started looking for ways to save Daniel. He worked all day on it, until sundown. 15That’s when the conspirators came back to the palace and said, “Our king, you know that according to the law of Medes and Persians not even a king can revoke an irrevocable law.”
16The king ordered the sentence carried out. But first he told Daniel, “You are incredibly devoted to your God. May he save you now.” Daniel was thrown into a pit [8] occupied by lions.
17Servants of the king pulled a big rock over the opening into the lion’s pit. They placed a clay seal between the rock and the opening. Then the king stamped the clay with his signet ring. [9] This prevented anyone from sneaking Daniel out unnoticed.
18The king went back to the palace where he skipped the evening entertainment and spent a sleepless night fasting. 19Darius left the palace at first light, rushing to the lion’s pit. 20As he approached it, still on the run, he yelled, “Daniel, are you there? Servant of the living God, did your God save you from the lions?”
21From behind the sealed rock Daniel’s voice broke through. “My king, may you live forever. 22My God did save me. He sent his angel to close the mouths of the lions. They didn’t hurt me because I didn’t do anything to deserve it. I didn’t do anything wrong toward God or you.”
23The king was ecstatic. He ordered Daniel released immediately, and Daniel walked out uninjured because he trusted God.
Persian families meet hungry lions
24Next, the king ordered a meal for the lions. He called in the men who maliciously plotted against Daniel. He had them thrown into the lion’s pit, with their wives and children. They didn’t even make it alive to the bottom of the pit. Hungry lions tore them to pieces.25King Darius wrote a message to the entire world—to people of every nation and language:
Hello. I hope you’re able to live in peace and make a good living for yourself. 26Today, I make this royal decree. I want everyone under my rule to respect the God of Daniel for his strength, and to fear what God can do with it.
He is a living God,
Who will never die.
His kingdom will never fall
Because he reigns forever.
To rescue those in danger.
He works miracles on earth
And wonders in the sky.
He saved Daniel
From the jaws of lions.” 28Daniel lived the sweet life of prosperity during the reigns of both Darius and, earlier, King Cyrus [10] the Persian.
Footnotes
King Darius the Great came from the land of the Medes in what is now northern Iran. He reigned over the Persian Empire from 522-486 BC. The first Jews returned to what was left of Jerusalem around 538 BC, 16 years before Darius became king. So, by the time Darius came around, locals had harassed the Jews for perhaps all 16 of those years. But it continued much longer, into the next century. Ezra and Nehemiah faced opposition in the mid-400s BC. Ezra returned to what was left of Jerusalem in 458 BC. Nehemiah, who repaired Jerusalem’s walls, came in about 445 BC.
The word satrap means “guardian” or “guardian of the kingdom.” Satrap governors served the king of the Persian Empire, but they generally seemed to have a lot freedom to make big decisions.
The writer doesn’t say why the other officials objected to Daniel, a man with a welcoming spirit. One guess, Daniel wasn’t native to the region of Babylon, Media, or Persia. He was a Jew from the defunct nation of Judah and the leveled ruins of its capital city of Jerusalem.
Jewish people generally prayed standing (1 Chronicles 23:30; Nehemiah 9; Matthew 6:5). Bowing down on knees seems like the thing a person would do when they are deeply troubled. Also, Daniel would have been over 80 years old by this time. He was taken captive to Babylon in 605 BC. He faced the lions in 522 BC or later.
Jews in the tribe of Levi, a tribe of priests, reportedly prayed twice a day: morning and evening (1 Chronicles 23:30). There’s no indication that Daniel’s prayer habits came from Jewish tradition. One songwriter in the Bible talked about praying seven times a day, but that may be a metaphor about staying in a constant state of connection with God (Psalm 119:164).
A Bible writer who reported Solomon building the first Jewish Temple mentioned that people faced the Temple when they prayed (1 Kings 8:44). But it’s rare to find that anywhere else in the Jewish Bible, which Christians usually call the Old Testament.
There’s irony in Daniel’s prayer “for God’s help.” If he hadn’t prayed it, he wouldn’t have needed it. Yet, he would get what he prayed for.
It wasn’t a lion’s den, which sounds like a scenic hangout. It was more likely a big hole in the ground, possibly a cistern originally dug to collect rainwater. The Aramaic word is gob. It can mean pit, den, or an excavated hole in the ground. But the most important word in the sentence is “lions.”
No one could get inside the lion’s den without breaking the clay seal that had an impression of the king’s signet ring. The impression from the ring acted as the king’s signature. The seal might have been as simple as a rope set on top of the rock and sealed to the ground with a small clay plug stamped with the king’s ring.
Cyrus ruled the Persian Empire from 539-530 BC. He was the first ruler, the one who defeated the Babylonians. Cambyses II came next, ruling from 530-522 BC. Then came Darius. After him came Xerxes, famous for invading Greece and defeating Spartans in a narrow seaside passage at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. That battle inspired the blockbuster film, “300.”