King Darius organized his kingdom by appointing one hundred and twenty satraps. He placed three administrators over them, so that the king would not suffer loss through the work and reports of the provincial officials. Daniel was one of the three administrators.
Daniel distinguished himself above the other administrators and satraps because of the exceptional spirit in him. The king planned to put him over the whole kingdom. The other administrators and satraps began looking for grounds to accuse Daniel in the way he handled the affairs of the kingdom. They could find no corruption, negligence, or fault in him.
They concluded that they would find no charge against Daniel unless it concerned the law of his God. The officials went together to the king and asked him to establish an order: for thirty days, anyone who made a petition to any god or person other than the king would be thrown into the lions’ den. They reminded him that a law of the Medes and Persians could not be changed once it had been established.
King Darius signed the document. Daniel learned that the decree had been signed and went home. In his upper room, the windows faced Jerusalem. There, as he had done before, he knelt three times a day, prayed to his God, and gave thanks.
The officials went together to Daniel’s house and found him praying and asking God for help. They then went to the king and spoke of the decree he had signed. Had the king not ordered that anyone who made a petition to another god or person during the thirty days be thrown into the lions’ den? The king answered that the command stood under the law of the Medes and Persians and could not be changed.
They told the king that Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, paid no attention to the king or to the decree. They said that Daniel continued to pray three times a day. Darius was deeply distressed when he heard this. He worked until sunset to rescue Daniel, but the officials returned and insisted that no decree or law established by the king could be altered.
At last the king gave the order, and Daniel was brought and thrown into the lions’ den. The king told Daniel that the God he served continually would rescue him. A stone was placed over the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his own signet and with the signets of his nobles, so that nothing concerning Daniel could be changed.
The king returned to his palace. He took no food and allowed no entertainment to be brought before him, and sleep left him. At the first light of dawn he rose and hurried to the lions’ den. As he came near, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, asking whether Daniel’s God, whom he served continually, had been able to rescue him from the lions.
Daniel answered from the den. He wished that the king might live forever, then said that his God had sent an angel and shut the lions’ mouths. They had not harmed him because he had been found blameless before God, Daniel said, and because he had done no wrong before the king.
The king was overjoyed and ordered Daniel lifted from the den. When Daniel was brought up, no wound was found on him because he had trusted in his God. The stone and the seals that had closed the den through the night had not prevented Daniel from coming out alive.
The king then ordered the men who had accused Daniel to be brought. They, their wives, and their children were thrown into the lions’ den. Before they reached its floor, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones. The decree they had used to trap Daniel left them before the same royal command.
Afterward Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages throughout the earth. He commanded them to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel. This God, the king wrote, is living and endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, and his dominion will have no end. He rescues and delivers, works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, and has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.