Daniel 6

ARC · Chapter 6/12

¹E pareceu bem a Dario constituir sobre o reino a cento e vinte presidentes, que estivessem sobre todo o reino;

²E sobre elles tres principes, dos quaes Daniel era um, aos quaes estes presidentes déssem conta, para que o rei não soffresse damno.

³Então o mesmo Daniel sobrepujou a estes principes e presidentes; porque n'elle havia um espirito excellente; porquanto o rei pensava constituil-o sobre todo o reino.

⁴Então os principes e os presidentes procuravam achar occasião contra Daniel a respeito do reino; mas não podiam achar occasião ou culpa alguma; porque elle era fiel, e não se achava n'elle nenhum vicio nem culpa.

⁵Então estes homens disseram: Nunca acharemos occasião alguma contra este Daniel, se não a acharmos contra elle na lei do seu Deus.

⁶Então estes principes e presidentes foram juntos ao rei, e disseram-lhe assim: Ó rei Dario, vive para sempre!

⁷Todos os principes do reino, os prefeitos e presidentes, capitães e governadores, tomaram conselho afim de estabelecerem um edicto real e fazerem um mandamento firme: que qualquer que, por espaço de trinta dias, fizer uma petição a qualquer deus, ou a qualquer homem, e não a ti, ó rei, seja lançado na cova dos leões.

⁸Agora pois, ó rei, confirma o edicto, e assigna a escriptura, para que não se mude, conforme a lei dos medos e dos persas, que se não pode revogar.

⁹Por esta causa o rei Dario assignou esta escriptura e edicto.

¹⁰Daniel, pois, quando soube que a escriptura estava assignada, entrou na sua casa (ora havia no seu quarto janellas abertas da banda de Jerusalem), e tres vezes no dia se punha de joelhos, e orava, e confessava diante do seu Deus, como tambem antes costumava fazer.

¹¹Então aquelles homens foram juntos, e acharam a Daniel orando e supplicando diante do seu Deus.

¹²Então se chegaram, e disseram diante do rei: No tocante ao edicto real, porventura não assignaste o edicto, que todo o homem que fizesse uma petição a qualquer deus, ou a qualquer homem, por espaço de trinta dias, e não a ti, ó rei, fosse lançado na cova dos leões? Respondeu o rei, e disse: Esta palavra é certa, conforme a lei dos medos e dos persas, que se não pode revogar.

¹³Então responderam, e disseram diante do rei: Daniel, que é dos transportados de Judah, não tem feito caso de ti, ó rei, nem do edicto que assignaste, antes tres vezes por dia faz a sua oração.

¹⁴Ouvindo então o rei o negocio, ficou muito penalisado, e a favor de Daniel propoz dentro do seu coração tiral-o; e até ao pôr do sol trabalhou por o salvar.

¹⁵Então aquelles homens se foram juntos ao rei, e disseram ao rei: Sabe, ó rei, que é uma lei dos medos e dos persas que nenhum edicto ou ordenança, que o rei determine, se pode mudar.

¹⁶Então o rei ordenou que trouxessem a Daniel, e o lançaram na cova dos leões. E, fallando o rei, disse a Daniel: O teu Deus, a quem tu continuamente serves, elle te livrará.

¹⁷E foi trazida uma pedra, e foi posta sobre a bocca da cova; e o rei a sellou com o seu annel e com o annel dos seus grandes, para que se não mudasse a sentença ácerca de Daniel.

¹⁸Então o rei se foi para o seu palacio, e passou a noite em jejum, e não deixou trazer á sua presença instrumentos de musica; e fugiu d'elle o somno.

¹⁹Então o rei se levantou pela manhã cedo, e foi com pressa á cova dos leões.

²⁰E, chegando-se á cova, chamou por Daniel com voz triste; e, fallando o rei, disse a Daniel: Daniel, servo do Deus vivo! dar-se-hia o caso que o teu Deus, a quem tu continuamente serves, te podesse livrar dos leões?

²¹Então Daniel fallou ao rei: Ó rei, vive para sempre!

²²O meu Deus enviou o seu anjo, e fechou a bocca dos leões, para que não me fizessem damno, porque foi achada em mim innocencia diante d'elle; e tambem contra ti, ó rei, não tenho commettido delicto algum.

²³Então o rei muito se alegrou em si mesmo, e mandou tirar a Daniel da cova: assim foi tirado Daniel da cova, e nenhum damno se achou n'elle, porque crêra no seu Deus.

²⁴Então ordenou o rei, e foram trazidos aquelles homens que tinham accusado a Daniel, e foram lançados na cova dos leões, elles, seus filhos e suas mulheres; e ainda não tinham chegado ao fundo da cova quando os leões se apoderaram d'elles, e lhes esmigalharam todos os ossos.

²⁵Então o rei Dario escreveu a todos os povos, nações e linguas que moram em toda a terra: A paz vos seja multiplicada.

²⁶Da minha parte é feito um decreto, que em todo o dominio do meu reino tremam todos e temam perante o Deus de Daniel; porque elle é o Deus vivo e permanecente para sempre, e o seu reino não se pode destruir, e o seu dominio dura até ao fim

²⁷Elle faz escapar e livra, e faz signaes e maravilhas no céu e na terra, o qual fez escapar a Daniel do poder dos leões.

²⁸Este Daniel, pois, prosperava no reinado de Dario, e no reinado de Cyro, o persa.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Envy among his colleagues leads to the creation of a manipulative law against Daniel, who continues praying openly to God even knowing about the decree. He is thrown into the lions' den, but God shuts the animals' mouths, and Daniel comes out unharmed.

Explanation

The trap set by Daniel's rivals cleverly exploits the inflexible law of the Medes and Persians, which once signed by the king could not be revoked even by himself (v.8,15) — a real historical detail about the legal rigidity of that empire. Daniel's choice to keep praying three times a day with his windows open toward Jerusalem, even knowing the risk (v.10), demonstrates a faithfulness that does not hide out of fear, but also does not seek unnecessary provocation — he simply continues his normal practice. The genuine anguish of King Darius himself, who fasts and spends the night in vigil for Daniel (v.18), shows the respect that Daniel's consistent integrity had earned even from a pagan ruler. The miraculous deliverance reinforces a central theme of the book: God protects those who remain faithful, even when it demands courage in the face of real danger.

Fun facts

The practice of praying three times a day facing Jerusalem, mentioned here, became a documented Jewish custom in other historical sources and is still practiced, in adapted forms, in Jewish tradition to this day.
The irrevocability of Medo-Persian laws, mentioned twice in this chapter, is confirmed by ancient historians as a real and rigid feature of that empire's legal system, distinct from other empires of the time.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Daniel 6:1Dividing the empire into 120 satrapies was a massive administrative undertaking, fitting the size of the Medo-Persian domain after Babylon’s fall recorded at the end of the previous chapter.
Daniel 6:2Placing Daniel among just three supervisors over 120 governors shows that, even now elderly and serving since Nebuchadnezzar’s time, he was still chosen for the new empire’s most trusted posts.
Daniel 6:3The king’s intention to promote Daniel above all the others is exactly the trigger that provokes the envy and conspiracy described in the following verses.
Daniel 6:4The thorough search for any administrative fault in Daniel, and the complete failure to find one, show, even before the religious accusation, that his integrity was recognized even by his own rivals.
Daniel 6:5Realizing they could only attack Daniel through his faith, not through incompetence or corruption, is an unwitting confession by his own enemies about his character.
Daniel 6:6The formal greeting before proposing the trap is the same courtesy formula used in other court scenes in the book, a way of opening the conversation before manipulating the king.
Daniel 6:7The idea that a law of the Medes and Persians, once signed, ‘altereth not,’ not even by the king himself, reflects something tradition attributed to Persian royal ideology — the conspirators use precisely this rule to trap Darius in a snare he himself can no longer escape.
Daniel 6:8Insisting on the irrevocability of Medo-Persian law is the cleverest part of the trap: the conspirators know that once signed, not even the king himself can undo the decree after realizing his mistake.
Daniel 6:9The king signs without noticing the trap, probably out of vanity: a decree requiring petitions to himself alone for thirty days sounds like tribute to his own authority, not a disguised threat against anyone in particular.
Daniel 6:10Praying three times a day facing Jerusalem, with the window open, describes a Jewish custom of praying at fixed hours facing toward the temple — even exiled hundreds of miles away, Daniel keeps this physical orientation as part of the habit.
Daniel 6:11The conspirators have to go to Daniel’s house to catch him in the act, which suggests his prayer routine was known and predictable, not hidden — he does not change the habit even knowing the risk.
Daniel 6:12The accusers make the king publicly confirm his own law before revealing who broke it, a tactic that closes off any way for him to reverse the decision afterward.
Daniel 6:13Reminding the king that Daniel is ‘of the children of the captivity of Judah’ reinforces his foreignness before the king, a subtle way of disqualifying him as an outsider, despite decades of loyal service to the empire.
Daniel 6:14The king spends the whole day trying to find a legal way out to save Daniel, revealing that he had been manipulated by his advisors and clearly saw the injustice of the very trap he had signed.
Daniel 6:15The conspirators come back to press the king before he can find a loophole, showing they were watchful and determined to make sure the sentence against Daniel was carried out.
Daniel 6:16The king’s words as Daniel is thrown into the den sound more like hope than certainty — he himself seems surprised to be expressing faith in someone else’s God in a situation he cannot control.
Daniel 6:17Sealing the stone over the den with the king’s own signet and the nobles’ signets was a legal security measure: anyone who tampered with the seal would be identified, an ancient way of guaranteeing that neither side could interfere with the sentence’s execution.
Daniel 6:18Fasting and refusing music through the night was typical mourning behavior in that culture — the king already acts as though he were holding a vigil for Daniel’s death, even without knowing the outcome for certain.
Daniel 6:19The king’s haste at first light, without ceremony, shows the anxiety of someone who spent the whole night awake waiting for the outcome.
Daniel 6:20Calling Daniel’s God ‘the living God’ before even knowing the outcome suggests the king was already inclined to believe in Him, perhaps influenced by the earlier chapters’ accounts of Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 6:21Daniel’s answer uses the very same formal greeting the conspirators had used to open their accusation — Daniel keeps court protocol even while coming straight out of a den of lions.
Daniel 6:22Daniel makes clear that his innocence holds both before God and before the king himself — he never disobeyed out of rebellion, only because he could not give up his daily prayer.
Daniel 6:23The text’s final explanation, ‘because he believed in his God,’ is one of the few times in the book that Daniel’s personal faith, not just God’s power, is cited as the direct reason for his deliverance.
Daniel 6:24Throwing into the den not only Daniel’s accusers but their families as well reflects a harsh custom common in the ancient world: punishing entire clans for the treachery of one member, not just the individual responsible.
Daniel 6:25The opening formula of Darius’s letter repeats almost exactly that of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4 — the same format of a royal decree addressed to all the peoples of the empire appears twice in the book.
Daniel 6:26Just like Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4, Darius issues a public decree acknowledging Daniel’s God, without necessarily abandoning his own gods, but declaring that this particular God deserves reverence throughout the empire.
Daniel 6:27The decree closes by citing the very miracle that had just happened as concrete proof of God’s power, not some abstract statement of faith.
Daniel 6:28Mentioning both reigns, Darius and Cyrus, closes the arc of Daniel’s career the same way chapter 1 had already signaled: he spans the entire transition from Babylonian to Persian rule without losing his position.