The big picture
Darius, the ruler now governing the kingdom, values Daniel, an exile whose faithful service sets him above other officials. Rivals cannot find misconduct, so they turn his prayer life into a trap. A signed law forbids petitions to anyone except the king for thirty days, with death among lions as the penalty. Daniel continues his usual prayer. The king regrets the trap but cannot undo the decree. A sealed den then becomes the place where God's rescue is made known.
In this chapter
- Rivals Turn Faithful Prayer Into a Trap Daniel 6:1-9
The king appoints 120 regional rulers under three senior officials, with Daniel foremost.
- Daniel Keeps Praying and the King Regrets Daniel 6:10-15
Knowing the decree is signed, Daniel goes home and kneels three times daily towards Jerusalem, his people's worship centre.
- The Sealed Den Leaves a King Sleepless Daniel 6:16-18
The king orders Daniel into the lions' den while expressing hope that the God he continually serves will rescue him.
- Daniel Answers Alive from Among the Lions Daniel 6:19-23
At dawn the king hurries to the den and calls with grief, asking whether Daniel's God has saved him.
- A Violent Reversal Accompanies Praise for God Daniel 6:24-28
Daniel's accusers are thrown to the lions at the king's order, along with their wives and children.
Central truth
Daniel continues faithful prayer under a law designed to destroy him, and God's rescue exposes the limits of the king's sealed decree.
Scripture beside the summary
Daniel · King James Version · 28Daniel 6:1-9
Rivals Turn Faithful Prayer Into a Trap
The king appoints 120 regional rulers under three senior officials, with Daniel foremost. His excellent service leads the king to consider wider authority for him. Rivals search for a fault but find no dishonesty or neglect. They decide to use his commitment to God's law. They approach the king claiming agreement on a thirty-day ban on petitions to any god or person but him. Violators will face lions. The rule is presented as unchangeable under the Medes and Persians, the ruling peoples. The king signs without seeing how the decree targets his trusted servant.
In everyday life
A promotions panel member sees rivals abandon a failed search for misconduct and draft a new rule aimed at one candidate's known religious practice. The proposal is presented as general policy, though its target is plain in private notes. She preserves those notes. Daniel's rivals secure a lethal royal decree, not merely a discriminatory workplace rule.
Notice
Daniel 6:5 The rivals admit that Daniel's service gives them no usable charge. They find no fault in his work. They need a rule that puts his faith at risk.
Daniel 6:1-9
King James Version1It 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.
Daniel 6:10-15
Daniel Keeps Praying and the King Regrets
Knowing the decree is signed, Daniel goes home and kneels three times daily towards Jerusalem, his people's worship centre. He prays and gives thanks as before. The plotters find him and first make the king confirm the law. They then accuse the exile from Judah, his conquered homeland, of ignoring it. The king is distressed with himself and spends the day seeking a way to save Daniel. At sunset the accusers insist that the signed decree cannot change. Daniel has kept his usual practice. That gives his foes the proof they wanted. The king's regret does not undo the law.
In everyday life
A union advocate reads a worker's unchanged prayer schedule beside a newly imposed rule aimed at it. The director now regrets signing, but the disciplinary machinery has already been invoked by hostile colleagues. She works through the available appeal routes. Daniel faces death under a decree the king cannot reverse, not a negotiable employment sanction.
Notice
Daniel 6:10 Daniel prays as he did before the decree. He keeps to his faith. He has not invented a new public act to anger the king after the law is signed.
Daniel 6:10-15
King James Version10Now 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.
Daniel 6:16-18
The Sealed Den Leaves a King Sleepless
The king orders Daniel into the lions' den while expressing hope that the God he continually serves will rescue him. A stone closes the opening. Royal and official seals secure it so no one can alter Daniel's fate by private intervention. The king returns to his palace but fasts, refuses entertainment, and cannot sleep. His power has carried out the sentence, yet it gives him no peace. The sealed entrance rules out a normal escape. The king cannot free him in secret during the night.
In everyday life
A prison visitor sits awake after a barred appeal leaves a friend behind a locked door. The official who regrets the outcome can offer sympathy but no release. The night passes without the usual distractions. Daniel's sealed den contains lions and awaits a miraculous rescue, not a detention that human appeals can eventually resolve.
Notice
Daniel 6:17 Both the king's seal and those of his officials secure the stone. No one side can open it in secret. That makes the later rescue more striking.
Daniel 6:16-18
King James Version16Then 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.
Daniel 6:19-23
Daniel Answers Alive from Among the Lions
At dawn the king hurries to the den and calls with grief, asking whether Daniel's God has saved him. Daniel answers with respect. God sent an angel to shut the lions' mouths because he was found innocent before him; he has also harmed the king in nothing. The delighted ruler orders him lifted out. He has no injuries. The account says he was safe because he trusted God. The condemned man comes out cleared of blame. The law did not have the final word on his life or his guilt.
In everyday life
A search coordinator calls into a place where a missing worker was feared dead and hears a clear reply. Relief does not replace the need to bring him out and check his condition. The team finds him uninjured. Daniel attributes his safety among lions to God's angel, not a rescue team's timely equipment and access.
Notice
Daniel 6:22 Daniel names innocence before God and lack of harm towards the king. His refusal to stop praying is not presented as wrongdoing against the ruler who condemned him.
Daniel 6:19-23
King James Version19Then 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.
Daniel 6:24-28
A Violent Reversal Accompanies Praise for God
Daniel's accusers are thrown to the lions at the king's order, along with their wives and children. They are killed before reaching the bottom. This is a brutal killing of whole families. The account does not tell readers to copy it. Darius then tells the nations to fear Daniel's living God, whose rule cannot be destroyed and who rescues through signs and wonders. Daniel prospers under Darius and Cyrus, the later Persian ruler. The rescue brings public praise, but the king's own retaliation remains violent. The chapter does not hide that violence behind the joy of Daniel's survival.
In everyday life
A human-rights archivist records both the release of an innocent prisoner and the ruler's subsequent punishment of the accusers' families. The first event does not make the second vanish from the file. She preserves the children's presence in the record without graphic display. Daniel's rescue is God's miracle, while the collective punishment is the king's order.
Notice
Daniel 6:24 Wives and children are included in the king's retaliation. The detail prevents the reversal from being described as punishment confined to the men who devised the accusation.
Daniel 6:24-28
King James Version24And 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.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Daniel 6:1 begins with “It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom;”
Where the chapter turns
Daniel 6:14 forms a natural hinge: “Then 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…”
The final note
Daniel 6:28 leaves the reader with “So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words king, Daniel, lions, decree, kingdom, princes help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- presidents
- Senior officials supervising the regional rulers, not modern elected heads of state.
- signet
- A personal seal pressed into material to authenticate and secure an order.
- supplication
- An earnest request for help, especially in prayer.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
