6:19 In the morning, at the earliest sign of daylight, the king got up and rushed to the lions’ den. 6:20 As he approached the den, he called out to Daniel in a worried voice, 1 “Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God whom you continually serve able to rescue you from the lions?”
6:21 Then Daniel spoke to 2 the king, “O king, live forever! 6:22 My God sent his angel and closed the lions’ mouths so that they have not harmed me, because I was found to be innocent before him. Nor have I done any harm to you, O king.”
6:23 Then the king was delighted and gave an order to haul Daniel up from the den. So Daniel was hauled up out of the den. He had no injury of any kind, because he had trusted in his God. 6:24 The king gave another order, 3 and those men who had maliciously accused 4 Daniel were brought and thrown 5 into the lions’ den – they, their children, and their wives. 6 They did not even reach the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.
6:25 Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and language groups who were living in all the land: “Peace and prosperity! 7 6:26 I have issued an edict that throughout all the dominion of my kingdom people are to revere and fear the God of Daniel.
“For he is the living God;
he endures forever.
His kingdom will not be destroyed;
his authority is forever. 8
6:27 He rescues and delivers
and performs signs and wonders
in the heavens and on the earth.
He has rescued Daniel from the power 9 of the lions!”
6:28 So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and 10 the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
1 tn Aram “The king answered and said to Daniel.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons; it is redundant in English.
2 tn Aram “with.”
3 tn Aram “said.”
4 tn Aram “had eaten the pieces of.” The Aramaic expression is ironic, in that the accusers who had figuratively “eaten the pieces of Daniel” are themselves literally devoured by the lions.
5 tn The Aramaic active impersonal verb is often used as a substitute for the passive.
6 tc The LXX specifies only the two overseers, together with their families, as those who were cast into the lions’ den.
7 tn Aram “May your peace be increased!”
8 tn Aram “until the end.”
9 tn Aram “hand.”
10 tn Or perhaps “in the reign of Darius, even in the reign of Cyrus.” The identity of this Darius is disputed. Some take the name to be referring to Cyrus, understanding the following vav (ו, “and”) in an epexegetical sense (“even”). Others identify Darius with a governor of Babylon known from extra-biblical records as Gubaru, or with Cambyses, son of Cyrus. Many scholars maintain that the reference is historically inaccurate.