Daniel 6

KJV · Chapter 6/12

¹It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom;

²And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage.

³Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.

⁴Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

⁵Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

⁶Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.

⁷All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.

⁸Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.

⁹Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.

¹⁰Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

¹¹Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.

¹²Then they came near, and spake before the king concerning the king’s decree; Hast thou not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.

¹³Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day.

¹⁴Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him.

¹⁵Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed.

¹⁶Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.

¹⁷And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.

¹⁸Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him.

¹⁹Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions.

²⁰And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?

²¹Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever.

²²My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.

²³Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.

²⁴And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.

²⁵Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.

²⁶I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.

²⁷He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

²⁸So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

📖 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.