Daniel in the Lions’ Den

Those who shared power with Daniel were stirred by envy, because a foreigner from a captive nation had been put on an equal footing with them. They pressed the king, who had been corrupted by flattery, into decreeing that divine honors should be paid to him for the next thirty days, and that no one might pray to any god except the king. Darius was easily persuaded, through the folly of all kings who claim divine honors for themselves. [a]

Daniel, well aware of what had been done and knowing well that prayer ought to be made to God and not to a man, was accused of not obeying the king’s command. Much against the will of Darius, who had always held him dear, the officials won their demand that he be let down into a den. But no harm came to him, exposed though he was to the wild beasts. When the king discovered this, he ordered Daniel’s accusers to be given over to the lions. They did not fare the same way: they were devoured at once to satisfy the hunger of the savage beasts. Daniel, famous before, was now held in still higher esteem, and the king repealed his former decree and issued a new one, that all errors and superstitions were to be abandoned and the God of Daniel was to be worshiped.

There is also a record of Daniel’s visions, in which he revealed the order of events in the ages to come. In them he included the number of years within which, as he announced, Christ would come down to earth, as has now taken place, and he clearly set forth the future coming of Antichrist. Anyone eager to look into these points will find them treated more fully in the book of Daniel; our aim is simply to give a connected account of events. Darius is reported to have reigned eighteen years, after which Astyages began to rule over the Medes.