Daniel 6:1-5
They could find no fault
An excellent spirit is in him and the king thinks of promoting him over the whole realm. The others look for grounds and conclude they will find none except concerning the law of his God.
People of the Bible
Darius
Signed a law he was flattered into, spent the night fasting because of it, and could not undo his own signature.
Darius takes the kingdom after Belshazzar and sets a hundred and twenty princes over it with three presidents above them, of whom Daniel is first. He is so pleased with Daniel that he thinks of setting him over the whole realm, which is what starts the trouble. The other officials can find no error or fault in him, so they build a charge out of his religion: a thirty day decree that any petition to any god or man except the king goes into the den of lions. They bring it to Darius as a unanimous proposal, and he signs it.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Darius
- 01
- 02
Daniel 6:6-9
All the presidents have consulted
They come as a group and claim unanimity, which is a lie, since Daniel is first of the three. Flattered, the king signs, and the decree cannot afterwards be altered.
- 03
Daniel 6:14-18
He laboured till the going down of the sun
Displeased with himself, he works all day to find a way out. The stone is laid and sealed with his own signet, and he passes the night fasting, without instruments of music, and his sleep goes from him.
- 04
Daniel 6:19-27
Is your God able to deliver you
He rises very early and goes in haste, and calls with a lamentable voice. Then he writes to all nations that men tremble before the God of Daniel, who delivers and rescues and works signs.
Why it matters
Darius is the study of a decent man inside a system that will not bend. When he understands what he has done he labours till sunset to deliver Daniel, and the officials remind him that no decree of the Medes and Persians may be changed. He goes to bed without food or music, rises at dawn and cries with a lamentable voice at the den, and then writes to all people, nations and languages that the God of Daniel is the living God, steadfast forever.
2 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
