Daniel 6:8-10

6:8 Now let the king issue a written interdict 1  so that it cannot be altered, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed. 2  6:9 So King Darius issued the written interdict.

6:10 When Daniel realized 3  that a written decree had been issued, he entered his home, where the windows 4  in his upper room opened toward Jerusalem. 5  Three 6  times daily he was 7  kneeling 8  and offering prayers and thanks to his God just as he had been accustomed to do previously.

Daniel 6:12

6:12 So they approached the king and said to him, 9  “Did you not issue an edict to the effect that for the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human other than to you, O king, would be thrown into a den of lions?” The king replied, “That is correct, 10  according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.”

1 tn Aram “establish a written interdict and inscribe a written decree.”

2 tn Or “removed.”

3 tn Aram “knew.”

4 sn In later rabbinic thought this verse was sometimes cited as a proof text for the notion that one should pray only in a house with windows. See b. Berakhot 34b.

5 map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

6 sn This is apparently the only specific mention in the OT of prayer being regularly offered three times a day. The practice was probably not unique to Daniel, however.

7 tc Read with several medieval Hebrew MSS and printed editions הֲוָה (havah) rather than the MT הוּא (hu’).

8 tn Aram “kneeling on his knees” (so NASB).

sn No specific posture for offering prayers is prescribed in the OT. Kneeling, as here, and standing were both practiced.

9 tc The MT also has “about the edict of the king,” but this phrase is absent in the LXX and the Syriac. The present translation deletes the expression.

tn Aram “before the king.”

10 tn Aram “the word is true.”