I will not break ¹  my covenant or go back on what I promised. ² 

May God who makes his name to reside there overthrow any king or nation ¹  who reaches out ²  to cause such change so as to destroy this temple of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given orders. Let them be carried out with precision!”

For we have heard him saying that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs ¹  that Moses handed down to us.”

lest they drink and forget what is decreed, and remove ¹  from all the poor ²  their legal rights. ³ 

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 

They ¹  charge ²  like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. ³  Each one proceeds on his course; they do not alter ⁴  their path.

He must not replace or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good, and if he does indeed exchange one animal for another animal, then both the original animal ¹  and its substitute will be holy.

“I hereby give orders that if anyone changes this directive a beam is to be pulled out from his house and he is to be raised up and impaled ¹  on it, and his house is to be reduced ²  to a rubbish heap ³  for this indiscretion. ⁴ 

So they approached the king and said to him, ¹  “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, ²  according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.”