Daniel in the Lions’ Den
Overview
- Testament: Old
- Book: Daniel
- Chapters: Daniel 6:1-28
- Summary: Jealous administrators in The King’s Court of Darius the Mede conspire against Daniel by persuading Darius to sign an irrevocable law forbidding prayer to any god or man except the king for thirty days. Daniel continues praying three times daily toward Jerusalem and is cast into the lions’ den. God shuts the lions’ mouths, and Daniel emerges unharmed, leading Darius to decree that all people must reverence the God of Daniel.
Significance
The account demonstrates that faithful obedience to God takes precedence over the decrees of earthly rulers, a theme that unifies Daniel with the earlier trial of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Daniel’s deliverance vindicates the sovereignty of the God of Israel before a pagan empire and foreshadows the ultimate triumph of God’s people over their persecutors. Darius’s concluding doxology—“He is the living God, and stedfast for ever” (Dan 6:26)—echoes the witness extracted from Nebuchadnezzar in earlier chapters, marking a repeated pattern of Gentile rulers acknowledging Israel’s God.
Key Verses
“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.” — Daniel 6:22 (KJV)
“Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.” — Daniel 6:25-26 (KJV)
Cross-References
- Daniel — the faithful prophet preserved by God in the den
- The King’s Court — the setting of the conspirators’ plot under Darius the Mede
- The Ancient of Days — the sovereign God whose kingdom Daniel’s deliverance anticipates
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — parallel deliverance of faithful Hebrews from death under Nebuchadnezzar