For Teaching

Daniel 6: What the Passage Says

99 claims across 28 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Daniel 6 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Darius sets Daniel over his officials, and the officials, unable to find any fault in Daniel's work, trap him by getting the king to sign an unchangeable decree banning petitions to anyone but the king for thirty days. Daniel keeps praying toward Jerusalem three times a day, is accused, and is thrown into the lions' den despite the king's daylong effort to save him. In the morning Daniel is found unharmed, the men who accused him are thrown in with their families and killed, and Darius issues a decree that all his kingdom is to fear the God of Daniel.

Claim by Claim

6:1
- It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom.
- These satraps were to be throughout the whole kingdom.
6:2
- Over the satraps Darius set three chief administrators.
- Daniel was one of the three administrators.
- The satraps were to give account to the three administrators.
- The purpose was that the king should suffer no loss.
6:3
- Daniel distinguished himself above the administrators and satraps.
- Daniel distinguished himself because an extraordinary spirit was in him.
- The king intended to set Daniel over the whole kingdom.
6:4
- The administrators and satraps sought to find a ground of accusation against Daniel concerning the affairs of the kingdom.
- They could find no ground of accusation or corruption.
- Daniel was faithful.
- No negligence or corruption was found in Daniel.
6:5
- These men said they would find no ground of accusation against Daniel.
- These men said the only exception would be finding something against him concerning the law of his God.
6:6
- The administrators and satraps came as a group to the king.
- They said to him, King Darius, live forever.
6:7
- They said that all the administrators, prefects, satraps, counselors, and governors had consulted together.
- They said the consultation was to establish a royal statute and enforce a firm decree.
- The proposed decree was that anyone who petitions any god or man for thirty days, except the king, is to be thrown into the den of lions.
6:8
- They urged the king to establish the decree and sign the document.
- They said this was so that it could not be changed.
- They said this accorded with the law of the Medes and Persians.
- They said the law of the Medes and Persians does not pass away.
6:9
- King Darius signed the written decree.
6:10
- Daniel learned that the document had been signed.
- Daniel went into his house.
- The windows of his upper room were open toward Jerusalem.
- Three times a day Daniel knelt on his knees.
- Daniel prayed and gave thanks before his God.
- Daniel did this just as he had done previously.
6:11
- These men came as a group.
- They found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.
6:12
- They approached the king and spoke to him about the king's decree.
- They asked whether he had not signed a decree that any man petitioning any god or man within thirty days, except the king, would be thrown into the den of lions.
- The king answered that the matter stands firm.
- The king said this was according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not pass away.
6:13
- They said before the king that Daniel is one of the exiles from Judah.
- They said Daniel pays no regard to the king.
- They said Daniel pays no regard to the decree the king signed.
- They said Daniel makes his petition three times a day.
6:14
- The king heard these words.
- The king was greatly distressed.
- The king set his mind on delivering Daniel.
- The king labored until sunset to rescue Daniel.
6:15
- These men came as a group to the king.
- They told the king to know that the law of the Medes and Persians is that no decree or statute established by the king may be changed.
6:16
- The king gave the command.
- They brought Daniel.
- They threw Daniel into the den of lions.
- The king spoke to Daniel.
- The king said Daniel serves his God continually.
- The king's words about Daniel's God delivering him can be read either as a statement that God will deliver him or as a wish that God may deliver him.
6:17
- A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den.
- The king sealed the stone with his own signet ring.
- The king also sealed it with the signet rings of his nobles.
- The sealing was so that nothing concerning Daniel could be changed.
6:18
- The king went to his palace.
- The king spent the night fasting.
- Nothing was brought before him of a thing whose meaning is uncertain, understood variously as entertainment, food, or concubines.
- The king's sleep fled from him.
6:19
- The king rose at the first light of dawn.
- The king went in haste to the den of lions.
6:20
- The king came near the den.
- The king cried out to Daniel with an anguished voice.
- The king addressed Daniel as servant of the living God.
- The king asked whether Daniel's God had been able to deliver him from the lions.
- The king said Daniel serves his God continually.
6:21
- Daniel spoke to the king.
- Daniel said, O king, live forever.
6:22
- Daniel said his God sent his angel.
- Daniel said the angel shut the lions' mouths.
- Daniel said the lions had not hurt him.
- Daniel said innocence was found in him before God.
- Daniel said he had done no wrong before the king.
6:23
- The king was exceedingly glad concerning Daniel.
- The king commanded that Daniel be lifted out of the den.
- Daniel was lifted out of the den.
- No injury of any kind was found on Daniel.
- This was because Daniel had trusted in his God.
6:24
- The king gave the command.
- They brought the men who had denounced Daniel.
- They threw those men into the den of lions.
- The men's children and wives were thrown in with them.
- The lions overpowered them.
- The lions crushed all their bones.
- This happened before they reached the bottom of the den.
6:25
- King Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages dwelling in all the earth.
- He wrote, May your peace be multiplied.
6:26
- Darius decreed that in every dominion of his kingdom men are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.
- Darius said the God of Daniel is the living God.
- Darius said he endures forever.
- Darius said his kingdom will not be destroyed.
- Darius said his dominion lasts to the end.
6:27
- Darius said God delivers and rescues.
- Darius said God works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth.
- Darius said God delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
6:28
- Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius.
- Daniel prospered in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

6:1: Darius: called "the Mede" earlier in the book. No king of that name is known from Persian records for this moment, and who the name is meant to point to is disputed. Satrap is a Persian word for the governor of a province of the empire; 120 of them is a large round number, and Persian records list far fewer. This section of the book (from 2:4 through the end of chapter 7) is written in Aramaic, the everyday language of the empire, rather than Hebrew.
6:2: The satraps' duties included collecting taxes and tribute for the crown, so "the king would not lose anything" means loss of revenue through theft or fraud.
6:3: "Spirit" here is not a supernatural power but the cast of a person's mind and character; the phrase means something like an extraordinary temperament or ability.
6:4: "Occasion" means legal grounds for a charge, and "error" and "fault" mean negligence and corruption. This is an audit: they went through his handling of public money and found nothing to use.
6:5: "The law of his God" means the body of Jewish religious law, which required that worship and petition be directed to one God alone. The officials are betting that Daniel will not stop praying, whatever the king orders.
6:6: "May you live forever" was the standard opening when addressing a king in the ancient Near East, closer to "Your Majesty" than to a real wish about his lifespan.
6:7: Prefects, satraps, advisers, governors: overlapping ranks of the imperial administration. The exact duties behind several of these Aramaic titles are no longer known; the piling up of them is meant to sound like the entire government speaking with one voice. Note also that "all the chief officials" is their own claim, Daniel is one of the three, and plainly was not consulted. A lions' den was a pit, covered at the top and entered from above; Assyrian and Persian kings kept captured lions for hunting and display.
6:8: Under the law of the Medes and Persians, as this book and the book of Esther describe it, a decree once issued and sealed could not be repealed, even by the king who issued it. Outside sources do not confirm such a rule, but within the story it is the trap: the king cannot undo his own order. "Sign" means to stamp the document with the royal seal rather than to write a signature.
6:10: Jews away from home prayed facing Jerusalem, where the temple had stood before the Babylonians destroyed it; the practice was tied to Solomon's prayer at the temple's dedication, which asked that prayers offered toward that place be heard. Praying at three fixed times of day was a settled Jewish custom. The "upstairs room" is a chamber built on the flat roof of the house, a private space, but with open windows, visible from outside.
6:11: "Making supplication" means pleading urgently for help. The men come as an organized group, which means they went looking at the hour they knew he would be praying, with witnesses.
6:12: They get the king to confirm the law in general terms first, before naming Daniel. Once Darius has restated that the decree cannot be canceled, he has argued himself out of any escape.
6:13: "One of the captives from Judah" identifies Daniel as one of the Judeans deported to Babylon after their kingdom was conquered. The officials use the label to remind the king that his favorite is a foreigner and a prisoner of war by origin.
6:14: The king works "until sundown" because the day ended at sunset, and the sentence would fall due at the end of the day on which the offense was reported.
6:16: The Aramaic can be read either as a wish, "may your God rescue you", or as a statement of confidence, "your God will rescue you." The King James translators took it the second way; the grammar allows both.
6:17: The seal was soft clay pressed over the stone (or over a cord across it) and stamped with a ring carved with the owner's mark. Anyone opening the den would have to break the clay, and the break would show. Sealing it with both the king's ring and the nobles' rings meant neither side could interfere without the other knowing.
6:18: Going without food was the ordinary way of showing grief or distress, not a religious observance here. The word translated "entertainment" occurs nowhere else in the Bible and its meaning is genuinely unknown; proposals include musicians, dancers, concubines, food, and diversions generally. The King James guess was "instruments of musick."
6:20: "With a lamentable voice" means in a voice full of grief. "The living God" was a standard phrase contrasting a god who acts with carved images that cannot.
6:22: "Angel" translates a word meaning simply "messenger", one sent to carry out an errand, whether human or heavenly.
6:23: "Believed in his God" in 1611 English means trusted or relied on his God, rather than holding an opinion that he existed.
6:24: "Accused" renders an Aramaic idiom that literally reads "ate the pieces of" him: that is, denounced him maliciously. Executing a condemned man's family along with him is a Persian practice reported by Greek historians of the period.
6:25: "Peoples, nations, and language groups" is a set formula in these chapters for the whole mixed population of the empire. The word behind "the land" can mean the earth as a whole or the extent of the empire; royal proclamations habitually claimed the larger sense. "May you have peace in full measure" is the standard greeting formula opening an official letter.
6:26: "The living God" was a standing phrase distinguishing a god who acts and speaks from a carved image, which does neither.
6:28: Cyrus the Persian took Babylon in 539 BC. The Aramaic here can equally be translated "in the reign of Darius, that is, in the reign of Cyrus the Persian", making the two names one ruler. The grammar allows either reading.

Read Daniel 6