Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Daniel 6:16
Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast [him] into the den of lions. [Now] the king spoke and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.
16. Now the king spake, &c.] The king answered, &c. The asyndetic construction is characteristic of the Aramaic portion of the book: Dan 3:19; Dan 3:24; Dan 3:26, Dan 5:7; Dan 5:13, Dan 6:20 (notice italics in A.V.), al. he will deliver thee
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then the king commanded … – See the note at Dan 6:7. Some recent discoveries among the ruins of Babylon have shown that the mode of punishment by throwing offenders against the laws to lions was actually practiced there, and these discoveries may be classed among the numerous instances in which modern investigations have tended to confirm the statements in the Bible. Three interesting figures illustrating this fact may be seen in the Pictorial Bible, vol. iii. p. 232. The first of those figures, from a block of stone, was found at Babylon near the great mass of ruin that is supposed to mark the site of the grand western palace. It represents a lion standing over the body of a prostrate man, extended on a pedestal which measures nine feet in length by three in breadth. The head has been lately knocked off; but when Mr. Rich saw it, the statue was in a perfect state, and he remarks that the mouth had a circular aperture into which a man might introduce his fist. The second is from an engraved gem, dug from the ruins of Babylon by Captain Mignan. It exhibits a man standing on two sphinxes, and engaged with two fierce animals, possibly intended for lions. The third is from a block of white marble found near the tomb of Daniel at Susa, and thus described by Sir Robert Ker Porter in his Travels (vol. ii. p. 416): It does not exceed ten inches in width and depth, measures twenty in length, and is hollow within, as if to receive some deposit. Three of its sides are cut in bass-relief, two of them with similar representations of a man apparently naked, except a sash round his waist, and a sort of cap on his head. His hands are bound behind him. The corner of the stone forms the neck of the figure, so that its head forms one of its ends. Two lions in sitting postures appear on either side at the top, each having a paw on the head of the man. See Pict. Bible, in loc.
Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God … – What is here stated is in accordance with what is said in Dan 6:14, that the king sought earnestly to deliver Daniel from the punishment. He had entire confidence in him, and he expressed that to the last. As to the question of probability whether Darius, a pagan, would attempt to comfort Daniel with the hope that he would be delivered, and would express the belief that this would be done by that God whom he served, and in whose cause he was about to be exposed to peril, it may be remarked,
(1) That it was a common thing among the pagan to believe in the interposition of the gods in favor of the righteous, and particularly in favor of their worshippers. See Homer, passim. Hence, it was that they called on them; that they committed themselves to them in battle and in peril; that they sought their aid by sacrifices and by prayers. No one can doubt that such a belief prevailed, and that the mind of Darius, in accordance with the prevalent custom, might be under its influence.
(2) Darius, undoubtedly, in accordance with the prevailing belief, regarded the God whom Daniel worshipped as a god, though not as exclusively the true God. He had the same kind of confidence in him that he had in any god worshipped by foreigners – and probably regarded him as the tutelary divinity of the land of Palestine, and of the Hebrew people. As he might consistently express this belief in reference to any foreign divinity, there is no improbability that he would in reference to the God worshipped by Daniel.
(3) He had the utmost confidence both in the integrity and the piety of Daniel; and as he believed that the gods interposed in human affairs, and as he saw in Daniel an eminent instance of devotedness to his God, he did not doubt that in such a case it might be hoped that he would save him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Dan 6:16-17
Then the King commanded and they brought Daniel.
The Example of Daniel
It is the property of pure religion to invest the man who possesses it with excellencies which bear no resemblance to the fashion of the world. His ambition rises beyond all human distinctions. Those endowments of mind and of character which arrested the admiration of Darius, and induced the smile of his complacency, awakened at the same time the direful spirit of envy in the breast of his courtiers, who could not endure to contemplate the rising glory of the man whom the king delighted to honour.
1. The text records the sentiments of an inspired prophet respecting the interference of human authority in the concerns of religion. Daniel honoured the King, but would not render to him the homage which interfered with the claims of God and the rights of conscience. Does it become Christians to evince less of fortitude and firm decision of soul?
2. In the temper and conduct of Daniel we may learn how all good men should act under the rod of oppression. To lawful authority obedience is due; but to yield submission to the will of a capricious tyrant, arrayed in the trappings of assumed and self-constituted authority, to a task dreadfully irksome to a reflecting mind. Absolute power cannot govern the region of the soul. If the Christian had power, he has no disposition to render evil for evil. His temper is that of meekness, and peace, and goodwill towards men. He, therefore, is not fitted to subvert establishments and to dethrone tyrants. His spirit gives him patience to endure, but inspires no feeling of resistance; and he prefers being made the victim rather than the agent of vengeance.
3. The case of the afflicted prophet reminds us how religious persecution defeats its object, by extending the cause which it is intended to repress. It was Daniels fortitude in subduing misfortunes, and his faith which conquered death, that made his religion popular.
4. The holy fortitude and triumph of the persecuted prophet, show that God affords support to his servants under the pressure of their heaviest trials. (Chap. 6:16, 28) (S. Curwen.)
The Den of Lions
The precedency given to Daniel did not suit the mind of the other presidents and princes for various reasons. They were still jealous of the power of this foreign worshipper of Jehovah, and doubtless they were well convinced that, so long as Daniel had the final authority over the treasury accounts, there would be small chance for them to enrich themselves at the expense of the kings exchequer. They therefore immediately formed a plot for Daniels overthrow. They perfectly understood that they could not sustain any ordinary charge against this man of blameless character and spotless integrity. So they resorted to craft. If Daniel was to be caught at all, it must be through his religious fidelity. The light that had shone so steadfastly and brilliantly in that great city for more than sixty years was not now to be hidden under a bushel. He disdained to condescend to unworthy compromises or cowardly evasions.
I. DANIEL DELIVERED TO THE LIONS. In the delivery of Daniel, to be cast into the den of lions, we are reminded at once of the similar fate which befell the three young princes, his early friends. Darius had been more boastful in the decree which made him god for thirty days, than had Nebuchadnezzar, who only ordered that his god should be worshipped by everybody; yet he had less power than his more modest predecessor. We cannot but reflect on the latent sarcasm involved in the boasted despotic power of earthly monarchs. Their power is always absolute to do evil, but limited to do good. Zedekiah could consent to the imprisonment of Jeremiah, but said he had not power to deliver him out of the hands of the nobles, his enemies. Herod had power to deliver John the Baptist to the executioner, but no power to save him from the result of his rash vow. Pilate seemed to have no power to save Jesus from his malicious enemies, but had power to deliver Him to the cross. And so we might further illustrate this power for evil, this impotence for good, when it is vested in the hands of the kings of the earth; but these cases will suffice. It was thus that Darius exercised his power and exhibited his powerlessness, when he ordered Daniel to be cast to the lions.
1. The kings speech.
Thy God, whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee. Thus he shifted responsibility from his own hands upon the God of Daniel, whom he had denied. So perhaps Herod hoped that somehow John the Baptist might be delivered out of Herodias hands. So perhaps Pilate may have thought. Darius seemed not only to desire that God would deliver Daniel, but had a strong hope that he would. Perhaps Daniel had told him how, forty or fifty years before, God had delivered his three friends out of the fiery furnace; for Darius seemed to know a good deal of Daniel and his God. But this good-will, and even this gleam of faith in the power of God to deliver his servant, did not excuse his own evil act in delivering the innocent to death. If God does not interpose to frustrate our evil doings or overrule them for good, that does not make our sin the less, though it brings equal glory to God.
2. The double sealing of the den.–And a stone was brought and laid upon the month of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. This reminds us very much of what the rulers of the Jews did when Jesus was buried. Did these lords fear that somehow Daniel would come out of that den of lions? It would almost seem so. There is always a fear in the heart of those who fight against God that he will defeat them.
II. THE DISTRESS OF THE KING.
1. A troubled conscience.–The king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; and his sleep went from him. It was well that he did so; though it had been better had he boldly delivered Daniel. How often, when we weakly yield to sin, and suffer the torture of an offended conscience, we try to compensate for our sin by some acts of self-denial. If the fasting was a sign of repentance, it was well; but if it was simply to ease the pain of conscience, and seek in that way to atone for the evil, it was a mere mockery. We are so often quick to sin and slow to repent; prompt in doing wrong, but dilatory in making reparation. We are not sorry that the king had a bad night of it. We have had bad nights ourselves, and know how he felt. On the other hand, we cannot but think how differently the night was spent, by Daniel. Peter slept quietly in his gaol while the angel was coming to deliver him; and Paul and Silas waked the prisons echoes with nightly song. Happy children and servants of God, who can be at peace, can sleep soundly or sing gleefully in lions den or prisons dungeon, while the monarch persecutors spend nights with tortured consciences in their splendid palaces!
2. A morning drive.–The king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste to the den of lions. He could not spend the whole night in his bed. With the first suggestion of dawn he was up and his chariot was ordered, and he drove in haste to the place where Daniel was quietly reposing with the lions and Gods angel. This indeed is a strange spectacle, for the monarch of the world thus to be attending upon a condemned servant of God. The spirit of God working in the conscience of Darius, compelled him to do the same thing; as once before the fear of Zedekiah brought him to the dungeon of Jeremiah, the imprisoned prophet. God knows how to bring down the head of the proud as well as how to lift up the humble. Happy we if we also may always repent in time.
3. The kings lamentable cry.–O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? The king was deeply distressed and in an agony of anxiety. He had admired Daniel, and had listened to the old prophets teaching concerning Jehovah. It all came back to him now; and he was both ready to publicly confess the excellency of the believers character, and the dignity and sovereignty of the believers God. In this lamentable cry there was both penitence and acknowledgment. What a splendid character he gave to Daniel: Servant of the living God, whom thou servest continually. He also confessed God in a wonderful way: The Living God. Thus he brushed aside all the pretensions of the idol gods, and gave honour to Jehovah. Daniels teachings had not been in vain.
III. DANIELSS TRIUMPH. That must have been a welcome sound to the kings ear, when the voice of Daniel answered back in clear, calm, and humbly triumphant tone, O king, live for ever. Human nature would have been inclined to have added. But no thanks to you.
1. Praise to God.–My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions mouths, that they have not hurt me. In this he takes pains to ascribe his deliverance to his God. Here is a strong emphasis upon the fact that the Living God is not to be confounded with the false gods of the heathen. He is a God of providence, who watches over his servants and keeps his promise with them.
2. A defence of his innocency.–Forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, I have done no hurt. Daniel does not boast of his goodness, but would set before the king that the favour of God to his servants in such a case is not regardless of the law of righteousness. Daniel had honoured God at a time when the world-power was denying and deriding him.
3. Daniel delivered out of the den.–Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel out of the den. Thus was Daniel delivered out of the den, and out of the hands of his enemies. His character was vindicated, and better still, his God was magnified and honoured.
IV. THE EDICT OF THE KING. God has never left the world without a witness for him; and now the last witness is being given to the nations by the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When this testimony is complete he will take to himself his great power, and finish the work in righteousness; he will set up his King upon the double throne of heaven and earth, and reign therein world without end. (G. F. Pentecost, D.D.)
The Den of Lions
Almost every bas-relief exhumed in recent years, has some figure of the lion. Dens of them were kept for the royal pleasure, or to be the swift executioners of the realm. Here, in this lesson, is a series of striking contrasts, between the King and his Jewish officer.
1. The one does wrong and hopes; the other does right and trusts. The deification of rulers was their general, as still the Russians regard the Tsar, and till lately, the Japanese the Mikado. The jewelled crown and sceptre were the signs of omnipotence. Darius had the ideas of his own time. In a way, he believed in his own divine nature. The flattery of courtiers was pleasing, and the imposing displays, in capital and campaign, helped to foster the self-delusion. It would never do for the Median lord to confess a mistake. We turn to look at that sincere, calm soul, whose love for his home wavered not through a life-time. A life of devotion was not to be abandoned because of any proclamation from men. Spiritual communion was as essential, after the famous behest, as before it was issued.
2. The one regards death as a sure agent, the other as under divine control. The love of life is an instinct. No one in his senses courts death. The taking of life is the last dread resort of the civil law. The unscrupulous ruler can rely on it to work his will. Daniel felt that if God had more for him to do in witnessing to the truth here, all the brute creation could not harm him. Death is not a certain victor when it suddenly confronts us.
3. The one decreed a universal religion; the other preached and practiced it daily. The safety of Daniel was proof enough to the king that the God of Daniel was no myth, but the living God. So he published an edict, demanding of all homage to Jehovah. But piety can never be the fruit of proclamation. In striking contrast with such, pretensions and wholesale religionism, there went forth, from the testing place, the plain lover of God, and preacher of righteousness, to take up his responsible duties as before, and to kneel in grateful acknowledgment of Jehovahs protection and furtherance. (De Witt S. Clark.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. Then the king commanded] With a heavy heart he was obliged to warrant this murderous conspiracy. But when passing sentence his last words were affecting: “Thy God, whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.” He is thy God; thou servest him, not occasionally, but continually; therefore “he will deliver thee.” Daniel had now the same kind of opportunity of showing his fidelity to God, as his three Hebrew companions before. The lions were not less terrible than the fiery furnace.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The king commanded: he had a good mind to do Daniel a kindness, but he could not stem the tide of his flatterers, who being crossed might machinate some mischief against him; having this plausible pretence for it, that they stood for the fundamental laws of the land, which the king endeavoured to null by his prerogative for the sake of one person, his pure vassal, being an alien, and of another religion, which was contrary to that which was by law established. Cast him into the den of lions: thus the best man in the kingdom becomes a sacrifice to the malice of the vilest men; the king consenting and commanding it against his conscience, but for reasons of state; being inexcusable for assuming the honour and worship of a god, exclusive to all other gods and worship; and, for all that he was convinced of the true God, would not worship him, nor suffer others to do it, under pain of death.
Thy God will deliver thee. No thanks to him. Why, then, did he cast the servant of God to the lions to try experiments upon him? No, to excuse himself, and to comfort Daniel; but to little purpose either.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. Thy God . . . will delivertheeThe heathen believed in the interposition of the gods attimes in favor of their worshippers. Darius recognized Daniel’s Godas a god, but not the only true God. He had heard of thedeliverance of the three youths in Dan 3:26;Dan 3:27 and hence augursDaniel’s deliverance. I am not my own master, and cannot deliverthee, however much I wish it. “Thy God will.” Kings are theslaves of their flatterers. Men admire piety to God in others,however disregarding Him themselves.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then the king commanded,…. Being overawed by his princes and fearing they would conspire against him, and stir up the people to rebel; and consulting his own credit lest he should be thought fickle and inconstant; he ordered the decree to be put in execution against Daniel, and delivered his favourite into their hands:
and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions; not the princes but proper officers employed by them: according to the additions to this book of Daniel, there were seven lions in this den, in the Apocrypha:
“And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given them every day two carcases, and two sheep: which then were not given to them, to the intent they might devour Daniel.” (Bel 1:32)
but, according to Joseph ben Gorion g, there were ten, who used to devour ten sheep, and as many human bodies every day; but this day they had no food, and ate nothing, that they might be more greedy, and devour Daniel the sooner:
now the king spake and said unto Daniel; being brought into his presence, in his palace, before he was cast into the den; or at the mouth of the den whither the king accompanied him:
thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee; he calls the Lord Daniel’s God, not his own, as he was not, he served other gods; yet he suggests that Daniel was right in serving him continually, in praying to him daily, the very thing for which he was cast to the lions; and expresses his confidence that his God he served would deliver him from being devoured by them; which he might conclude, from, the innocency, integrity, and faithfulness of Daniel, and from his being such a peculiar favourite of God as to be indulged with the knowledge of future things; and perhaps he might have heard of the deliverance of his three companions from the fiery furnace: though the words may be rendered, as they are by some, as a wish or prayer, “may thy God c. deliver thee” h I cannot, I pray he would; it is my hearty desire that so it might be.
g Hist. Heb. l. 1. c. 10. p. 34. h “liberet te”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Grotius, Cocceius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
DANIEL CAST INTO THE DEN OF LIONS
Verses 16, 17:
Verse 16 announces that king Darius then commanded that Daniel be brought to him, and before him, be cast into the den of lions, “no problem” for Daniel, whose God was with him, Psa 34:7; Heb 3:5. Before Daniel was cast into the den of lions the king said directly to Daniel, “thy God whom thou servest continuously (unceasingly) will deliver, liberate, or set you free.” He was a slave to “flatteries”, yet sensed that the God of Daniel would protect and deliver Daniel, Mat 27:43; Col 1:13; 1Th 1:10; 2Pe 2:9; See also Isa 41:10; Isa 43:2; 2Co 1:10.
Verse 17 explains that a stone was brought and put over the entrance to the den, and the king them sealed it with his own signet and that of his lords. This meant death to any who would open the mouth of the den unauthorized. This was done in order that the integrity of the purpose of the new law of the Medes and Persians might not be changed, altered, or amended concerning Daniel, Lam 3:53. This was similar to the Roman seal put on our Lord’s tomb, Mat 27:60; Mat 27:66.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The king, as we have said, frightened by the denunciation of the nobles, condemns Daniel to death. And hence we gather the reward which kings deserve in reference to their pride, when they are compelled to submit with servility to their flatterers. How was Darius deceived by the cunning of his nobles! For he thought his authority would be strengthened, by putting the obedience of all men to this test of refusing all prayer to any god or man for a whole month. He thought he should become superior to both gods and men, if all his subjects really manifested obedience of this kind. We now see how obstinately the nobles rise against him, and denounce ultimate revolt, unless he obey them. We see that when kings take too much upon themselves, how they are exposed to infamy, and become the variest slaves of their own servants! This is common enough with earthly princes; those who possess their influence and favor applaud them in all things and even adore them; they offer every kind of flattery which can propitiate their favor; but, meanwhile, what freedom do their idols enjoy? They do not allow them any authority, nor any intercourse with the best and most faithful friends, while they are watched by their own guards. Lastly, if they are compared with the wretches who are confined in the closest dungeon, not one who is thrust down into the deepest pit, and watched by three or four guards, is not freer than kings themselves! But, as I have said, this is God’s most just vengeance; since, when they cannot contain themselves in the ordinary rank and station of men, but wish to penetrate the clouds and become on a level with God, they necessarily become a laughingstock. Hence they become slaves of all their attendants, and dare not utter anything with freedom, and are without friends, and are afraid to summon their subjects to their presence, and to intrust either one or another with their wishes. Thus slaves rule the kingdoms of the world, because kings assume superiority to mortals. King Darius is an instance of this when he sent for Daniel, and commanded him to be thrown into the den of lions; his nobles force this from him, and he unwillingly obeys them. But we should notice the reason. He had lately forgotten his own mortality, he had desired to deprive the Almighty of his sway, and as it were to drag him down from heaven! For if God remains in heaven, men must pray to him; but Darius forbade any one from even daring to utter a prayer; hence as far as he could he deprived the Almighty of his power. Now he is compelled to obey his own subjects, although they exercise an almost disgraceful tyranny over him.
Daniel now adds — the king said this to him, Thy God, whom thou servest, or worshipest, faithfully, he will deliver thee! This word may be read in the optative mood, as we have said. There is no doubt that Darius really wished this; but it may mean, Thy God whom thou worshipest will deliver thee — as if he had said, “Already I am not my own master, I am here tossed about by the blast of a tempest; my nobles compel me to this deed against my will; I, therefore, now resign thee and thy life to God, because it is not in my power to deliver thee;” as if this excuse lightened his own crime by transferring to God the power of preserving Daniel. This reason causes some to praise the piety of King Darius; but as I confess his clemency and humanity to be manifest in this speech, so it is clear that he had not a grain of piety when he thus wished to adorn himself in the spoils of deity! For although the superstitious do not seriously fear God, yet they are restrained by some dread of him; but he here wished to reduce the whole divinity to nothing. What sort of piety was this? The clemency of Darius may therefore be praised, but his sacrilegious pride can by no means be excused. Then why did he act so humanely towards Daniel? Because he had found him a faithful servant, and the regard which rendered him merciful arose from this peculiarity. He would not have manifested the same disposition towards others. If a hundred or a thousand Jews had been dragged before his tribunal, he would carelessly have condemned them all because they had disobeyed the edict! Hence he was obstinately impious and cruel. He spared Daniel for his own private advantage, and thus embraced him with his favor; but in praising his humanity, we do not perceive any sign of piety in him. But he says, the God whom thou worshipest, he will deliver thee, because, he had formerly known Daniel’s prophecy concerning the destruction of the Chaldean monarchy; hence he is convinced, how Israel’s God is conscious of all things, and rules everything by his will; yet, in the meantime, he neither worships him nor suffers others to do so; for as far as he could he had excluded God from his own rights. In thus attributing to God the power of delivering him, he does not act cordially; and hence his impiety is the more detestable, when he deprives God of his rights while he confesses him to be the true and only one endued with supreme power; and though he is but dust and ashes, yet he substitutes himself in his place! It now follows, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) They brought Daniel.According to Eastern custom, the sentence was generally executed on the day when it was pronounced. This explains why the kings efforts to commute the sentence were prolonged till sunset (Dan. 6:14). The lions were probably kept here for sporting purposes. The form of the den is unknown, but the etymology suggests a vaulted chamber.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Thy God will deliver thee As De Wette once wrote, “Darius shows superabundant faith here.” A Babylonian king to make such a speech as this must have had more faith in Jehovah than the followers of Daniel’s God then or now. (Compare note Dan 3:18). One ancient text in the same spirit adds this encouragement from the king: “Be of good cheer until the morning.” (See Introduction, II, 3.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then the king commanded and they brought Daniel and threw him into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, “Your God Whom you serve continually, he will deliver you.” ’
No time is wasted on the details. Daniel would be brought in before the king to answer the charge. He would stand their boldly and declare that His God could deliver him, just as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had done so long before (Dan 3:17-18). And the king would remember strange things he had been told about this man and his God, and he would begin to hope. Perhaps it was true. Perhaps his God could help this man. Then with grief he passed the sentence and Daniel was taken out and thrown in the lions’ den. And we can be sure that they were hungry lions, kept hungry for such a purpose. It is significant that whereas Nebuchadnezzar had used fire, Darius did not do so. To the Persians fire was sacred. Instead they tossed men to the wild beasts.
We know nothing about these lions’ dens. It had a hole in the top through which food could be dropped and through which people could see the lions. It had a door in the side which had to be sealed with a stone, for the den would sometimes have to be cleaned out, and further lions would be introduced through it. And it was through one of these that Daniel was tossed into the cave. But not before the king had declared his weak but growing faith. “Your God Whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.” It was only a hope, but there was no one who deserved it more than Daniel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Dan 6:16 Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast [him] into the den of lions. [Now] the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.
Ver. 16. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel. ] Besides and against his conscience, Rex regendum se praebet impiis nebulonibus, the king yieldeth to the importunity of these wretched malignants, and condemneth an innocent. See Mat 27:24 . This maketh Calvin conclude ne micam quidem pietatis fuisse in hoc rege, that there was no goodness at all in this king.
And cast him into the den of lions.
Now the king spake and said unto Danial.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Daniel
FAITH STOPPING THE MOUTHS OF LIONS
Dan 6:16 – Dan 6:28
Daniel was verging on ninety when this great test of his faithfulness was presented to him. He had been honoured and trusted through all the changes in the kingdom, and, when the Medo-Persian conquest came, the new monarch naturally found in him, as a foreigner, a more reliable minister than in native officials. ‘Envy doth merit as its shade pursue,’ and the crafty trick by which his subordinates tried to procure his fall, was their answer to Darius’s scheme of making him prime minister. Our passage begins in the middle of the story, but the earlier part will come into consideration in the course of our remarks.
I. We note, first, the steadfast, silent confessor and the weak king.
Darius is a great deal more conspicuous in the narrative than Daniel. The victim of injustice is silent. He does not seem to have been called on to deny or defend the indictment. His deed was patent, and the breach of the law flagrant. He, too, was ‘like a sheep before the shearers,’ dumb. His silence meant, among other things, a quiet, patient, fixed resolve to bear all, and not to deny his God. Weak men bluster. Heroic endurance has generally little to say. Without resistance, or a word, the old man, an hour ago the foremost in the realm, is hauled off and flung into the pit or den. It is useless and needless to ask its form. The entrance was sealed with two seals, one the king’s, one the conspirators’, that neither party might steal a march on the other. Fellows in iniquity do not trust each other. So, down in the dark there, with the glittering eyeballs of the brutes round him, and their growls in his ears, the old man sits all night long, with peace in his heart, and looking up trustfully, through the hole in the roof, to his Protector’s stars, shining their silent message of cheer.
The passage dwells on the pitiable weakness and consequent unrest of the king. He had not yielded Daniel to his fate without a struggle, which the previous narrative describes in strong language. ‘Sore displeased,’ he ‘set his heart’ on delivering him, and ‘laboured’ to do so. The curious obstacle, limiting even his power, is a rare specimen of conservatism in its purest form. So wise were our ancestors, that nothing of theirs shall ever be touched. Infallible legislators can make immutable laws; the rest of us must be content to learn by blundering, and to grow by changing. The man who says, ‘I never alter my opinions,’ condemns himself as either too foolish or too proud to learn.
But probably, if the question had been about a law that was inconvenient to Darius himself, or to these advocates of the constitution as it has always been, some way of getting round it would have been found out. If the king had been bold enough to assert himself, he could have walked through the cobweb. But this is one of the miseries of yielding to evil counsels, that one step taken calls for another. ‘In for a penny, in for a pound.’ Therefore let us all take heed of small compliances, and be sure that we can never say about any doubtful course, ‘Thus far will I go, and no farther.’ Darius was his servants’ servant when once he had put his name to the arrogant decree. He did not know the incidence of his act, and we do not know that of ours; therefore let us take heed of the quality of actions and motives, since we are wholly incapable of estimating the sweep of their consequences.
Darius’s conduct to Daniel was like Herod’s to John the Baptist and Pilate’s to Jesus. In all the cases the judges were convinced of the victim’s innocence, and would have saved him; but fear of others biassed justice, and from selfish motives, they let fierce hatred have its way. Such judges are murderers. From all come the old lessons, never too threadbare to be dinned into the ears, especially of the young, that to be weak is, in a world so full of temptation, the same as to be wicked, and that he who has a sidelong eye to his supposed interest, will never see the path of duty plainly.
What a feeble excuse to his own conscience was Darius’s parting word to Daniel! ‘Thy God, whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee!’ And was flinging him to the lions the right way to treat a man who served God continually? Or, what right had Darius to expect that any god would interfere to stop the consequences of his act, which he thus himself condemned? We are often tempted to think, as he did, that a divine intervention will come in between our evil deeds and their natural results. We should be wiser if we did not do the things that, by our own confession, need God to avert their issues.
But that weak parting word witnessed to the impression made by the lifelong consistency of Daniel. He must be a good man who gets such a testimony from those who are harming him. The busy minister of state had done his political work so as to extort that tribute from one who had no sympathy with his religion. Do we do ours in that fashion? How many of our statesmen ‘serve God continually’ and obviously in their public life?
What a contrast between the night passed in the lions’ den and the palace! ‘Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage,’ and soft beds and luxurious delights of sense bring no ease to troubled consciences. Daniel is more at rest, though his ‘soul is among lions,’ than Darius in his palace. Peter sleeps soundly, though the coming morning is to be his last. Better to be the victim than the doer of injustice!
The verdict of nightly thoughts on daily acts is usually true, and if our deeds do not bear thinking of ‘on our beds,’ the sooner we cancel them by penitence and reversed conduct, the better. But weak men are often prone to swift and shallow regrets, which do not influence their future any more than a stone thrown into the sea makes a permanent gap. Why should Darius have waited for morning, if his penitence had moved him to a firm resolution to undo the evil done? He had better have sprung from his bed, and gone with his guards to open the den in the dark. Feeble lamentations are out of place when it is still time to act.
The hurried rush to the den in the morning twilight, and the ‘lamentable voice,’ so unlike royal impassiveness, indicate the agitation of an impulsive nature, accustomed to let the feeling of the moment sway it unchecked. Absolute power tends to make that type of man. The question thrown into the den seems to imply that its interior was not seen. If so, the half-belief in Daniel’s survival is remarkable. It indicates, as before, the impression of steadfast devoutness made by the old man’s life, and also a belief that his God was possibly a true and potent divinity.
Such a belief was quite natural, but it does not mean that Darius was prepared to accept Daniel’s God as his god. His religion was probably elastic and hospitable enough to admit that other nations might have other gods. But his thoughts about this ‘living God’ are a strange medley. He is not sure whether He is stronger than the royal lions, and he does not seem to feel that if a god delivers, his own act in surrendering a favoured servant of such a god looks very black. A half-belief blinds men to the opposition between their ways and God’s, and to the certain issue of their going in one direction and God in another. If Daniel be delivered, what will become of Darius? But, like most men, he is illogical, and that question does not seem to have occurred to him. Surely this man may sit for a portrait of a weak, passionate nature, in the feebleness of his resistance to evil, the half hopes that wrong would be kept from turning out so badly as it promised, the childish moanings over wickedness that might still have been mended, and the incapacity to take in the grave, personal consequences of his crime.
II. We next note the great deliverance.
The king does not see Daniel, and waits in sickening doubt whether any sound but the brutes’ snarl at the disturber of their feast will be heard. There must have been a sigh of relief when the calm accents were audible from the unseen depth. And what dignity, respect, faith, and innocence are in them! Even in such circumstances the usual form of reverential salutation to the king is remembered. That night’s work might have made a sullen rebel of Daniel, and small blame to him if he had had no very amiable feelings to Darius; but he had learned faithfulness in a good school, and no trace of returning evil for evil was in his words or tones.
The formal greeting was much more than a form, when it came up from among the lions. It heaped coals of fire on the king’s head, let us hope, and taught him, if he needed the lesson, that Daniel’s disobedience had not been disloyalty. The more religion compels us to disregard the authority and practices of others, the more scrupulously attentive should we be to demonstrate that we cherish all due regard to them, and wish them well. How simply, and as if he saw nothing in it to wonder at, he tells the fact of his deliverance! ‘My God has sent His angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths.’ He had not been able to say, as the king did before the den was opened, ‘Thy God will deliver thee’; but he had gone down into it, knowing that He was able, and leaving himself in God’s care. So it was no surprise to him that he was safe. Thankfulness, but not astonishment, filled his heart. So faith takes God’s gifts, however great and beyond natural possibility they may be; for the greatest of them are less than the Love which faith knows to move all things, and whatsoever faith receives is just like Him.
Daniel did not say, as Darius did, that he served God continually, but he did declare his own innocency in God’s sight and unimpeachable fidelity to the king. His reference is probably mainly to his official conduct; but the characteristic tone of the Old Testament saint is audible, which ventured on professions of uprightness, accordant with an earlier stage of revelation and religious consciousness, but scarcely congruous with the deeper and more inward sense of sin produced by the full revelation in Christ. But if the tone of the latter part of Dan 6:22 is somewhat strange to us, the historian’s summary in Dan 6:23 gives the eternal truth of the matter: ‘No manner of hurt was found upon him, because he had trusted in his God.’ That is the basis of the reference in Heb 11:33 : ‘Through faith . . . stopped the mouths of lions.’
Simple trust in God brings His angel to our help, and the deliverance, which is ultimately to be ascribed to His hand muzzling the gaping beasts of prey, may also be ascribed to the faith which sets His hand in motion. The true cause is God, but the indispensable condition without which God will not act, and with which He cannot but act, is our trust. Therefore all the great things which it is said to do are due, not to anything in it, but wholly to that of which it lays hold. A foot or two of lead pipe is worth little, but if it is the channel through which water flows into a city, it is priceless.
Faith may or may not bring external deliverances, such as it brought to Daniel; but the good cheer which this story brings us does not depend on these. When Paul lay in Rome, shortly before his martyrdom, the experience of Daniel was in his mind, as he thankfully wrote to Timothy, ‘I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.’ He adds a hope which contrasts strangely, at first sight, with the clear expectation of a speedy and violent death, expressed a moment or two before ‘I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come’ when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver me from every evil work’; but he had learned that it was possible to pass through the evil and yet to be delivered from it, and that a man might be thrown to the lions and devoured by them, and yet be truly shielded from all harm from them. So he adds, ‘And will save me unto His heavenly kingdom,’ thereby teaching us that the true deliverance is that which carries us into, or something nearer towards, the eternal home. Thus understood, the miracle of Daniel’s deliverance is continually repeated to all who partake of Daniel’s faith, ‘Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation . . . thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder.’
The savage vengeance on the conspirators and the proclamation of Darius must be left untouched. The one is a ghastly example of retributive judgment, in which, as sometimes is the case even now, men fall into the pit they have digged for others, and it shows the barbarous cruelty of that gorgeous civilisation. The other is an example of how far a man may go in perceiving and acknowledging the truth without its influencing his heart. The decree enforces recognition of Daniel’s God, in language which even prophets do not surpass; but it is all lip-reverence, as evanescent as superficial. It takes more than a fright caused by a miracle to make a man a true servant of the living God.
The final verse of the passage implies Daniel’s restoration to rank, and gives a beautiful, simple picture of the old man’s closing days, which had begun so long before, in such a different world as Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, and closed in Cyrus’s, enriched with all that should accompany old age-honour, obedience, troops of friends. ‘When a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Dan 6:16-18
16Then the king gave orders, and Daniel was brought in and cast into the lions’ den. The king spoke and said to Daniel, Your God whom you constantly serve will Himself deliver you. 17A stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles, so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel. 18Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him; and his sleep fled from him.
Dan 6:16
NASB, NKJVYour God. . .will Himself
NRSV,
NASB margin,
NABMay your God. . .deliver you
TEVMay your God. . .rescue you
NJBYour God. . .will have to save you
Aramaic grammar determines that this phrase is INDICATIVE, not JUSSIVE (NRSV, NAB), with an emphasis on your God (cf. Anchor Bible, vol. 23, p. 195). Again, the impotence of earthly monarchs is contrasted with the power and authority of the God of Judah (cf. Dan 3:17; Dan 3:28).
Dan 6:17 A stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den Lions were kept for the hunting pleasure of near Eastern royalty. Death by being thrown to wild animals was a common method of execution by the royal courts of the Ancient Near East and East. Apparently the den was an underground pit with two entrances, one from the top (cf. Dan 6:23) and one from the bottom. Again, the fall should have killed him (cf. Dan 3:20), much less the hungry lions.
Dan 6:18 the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting This was not necessarily religious fasting, but simply the anxious worrying of a man who knew he had been tricked into doing evil to an innocent (cf. Dan 6:22) faithful (and a very effective) servant.
no entertainment was brought before him There has been much discussion about this Aramaic word (BDB 1087). There are several theories: (1) Eben-Ezra, John Calvin, and NKJV believe it means play music from the root to strike; (2) the Hebrew counterpart means to thrust, therefore, possibly dancers’ (3) the Peshitta has the word food (from dining table); (4) Martin Luther and the RSV have diversions or pleasure; and (5) the NJB, from a possible Arabic root, has sexual pleasure or concubines.
his sleep fled from him This is an Aramaic idiom (cf. Est 6:1).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Dan 6:16
Dan 6:16 ThenH116 the kingH4430 commanded,H560 and they broughtH858 Daniel,H1841 and castH7412 him into the denH1358 ofH1768 lions.H744 Now the kingH4430 spakeH6032 and saidH560 unto Daniel,H1841 Thy GodH426 whomH1768 thouH607 servestH6399 continually,H8411 heH1932 will deliverH7804 thee.
Dan 6:16
Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.
Darius finally realizing that nothing could prevent Daniel from being thrown to the lions by law, he acquiesced to it and had him cast into the den. But before he did, he made a remarkable statement to Daniel. Darius believed in the existence of the God of the Jews.
It was a common thing among the pagans to believe in the intervention of the gods in favor of the righteous, and particularly in favor of their worshippers. For this reason, it was that they called on them and that they committed themselves to these gods in battle and in peril and that they sought their aid by sacrifices and by prayers. No one can doubt that such a belief existed and that Darius was being influenced by it.
Darius undoubtedly regarded the God whom Daniel worshipped as a god, though not as exclusively the true God. He had the same kind of confidence in him that he had in any god worshipped by foreigners and probably regarded Him as as the national god of the Hebrew people. He probably expressed this belief in reference to any god of any nationality within the realm. Keeping in mind that these people believed in a host of gods.
Darius had the utmost confidence both in the integrity and the piety of Daniel and since he believed that the gods intervened in human affairs, he in Daniel a worthy candidate for God’s protection and he did not doubt that Daniel’s God could and probably would intervene and save him from the lions. Like Nebuchadnezzar before him, Darius believed in the existence of God. He just didn’t realize that Daniel’s God was the only God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Persecuted for Righteousness Sake
Dan 6:16-28
The plot was an atrocious one, but it hurt its perpetrators more than the victim of their vindictive hatred, Dan 6:24. They dug a pit into which they fell themselves. They thought to flatter the king, and secure Daniels fall; but their stratagems were like the mines laid at the mouth of a harbor, which are more perilous to those who set them than to others. Still God sends His angels to shut the lions mouths, that they may not hurt His people, strongly conscious of uprightness before God and man. It is not necessary to suppose that Daniel saw the angel any more than we behold the horses and chariots in the mountains around us. Dare to believe that the ministering angels, though unseen, engirdle you and intercept the blows and plots of your adversaries. Walk before God in righteousness and peace, and be sure that you are immortal till your work is done. That a heathen king should publish such a proclamation is a glimpse into the divine wisdom that can make His mighty power known by the strangest circumstances.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
the king: 2Sa 3:39, Pro 29:25, Jer 26:14, Jer 38:5, Mat 14:8-10, Mat 27:23-26, Mar 6:25-28, Mar 15:14, Mar 15:15, Joh 19:12-16, Act 24:27, Act 25:9, Act 25:11, Rom 13:3
Thy God: Dan 6:20, Dan 3:15, Dan 3:17, Dan 3:28, Job 5:19, Psa 37:39, Psa 37:40, Psa 91:14-16, Psa 118:8, Psa 118:9, Isa 43:2, Act 27:23, Act 27:24
Reciprocal: 2Ki 18:29 – Let not Isa 44:17 – Deliver me Jer 39:17 – I will Dan 3:23 – fell Mal 3:15 – they that tempt Act 10:2 – and prayed Act 16:17 – the servants Act 16:39 – and brought Rev 7:3 – the servants
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
IN AND OUT
Into the den. Out of the den.
Dan 6:16; Dan 6:23
Daniel was made one (R.V.) of the three presidents of the kingdom, but he so outshone the others by the excellent spirit that was in him that the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Hence arose the envious conspiracy of the other courtiers.
I. Mark here, first, the spirit of murder that lurks in envy.The very excellence of Daniels spirit bred in his enemies all that was evil and murderous, as the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog. Happy is he in whom the only cause for envy is his virtue, but he must lay his account for it that his very virtue will draw out towards him the hatred of the evil-hearted. The strength of sin is the holy law of God. A minister once exclaimed from his pulpit: O Virtue! if thou wert embodied, how all men would love thee! On the same day his colleague rejoined: Virtue has been embodied. Did all men love her? No; she was despised and rejected of men, who led her to Calvary, where they crucified her between two thieves. And the servant is not above his Lord.
II. The culpable blindness of pride.As the efforts of the plotters were set against the high excellence of Daniel, so they made their appeal to the kingly pride of Darius. They interpreted his nature by their own, and they so far judged accurately. According to Babylonian theology, the king was the living manifestation of all the gods. Hence the decree which they drew from Darius was calculated to make him feel that now he was given the real semi-divine status of a Babylonian king; and so he was completely blinded to the motive that lay behind their adulation, and to the doom that was intended for Daniel. Darius was quite evidently a high type of an Eastern potentate. But, like many another, he was led blindfold by his own pride, and in the agony which he endured when he saw the precipice to which he had been dragged, he was made to feel the culpability of the pride that seeks to pose as Divine.
III. The steady courage of the prayerful heart.The decree was signed and Daniel knew it, but he went openly on with his thrice daily times of prayer. That was the testing point for Daniel. He did not flinch when it came to the lions den, but the secret of his courage lay back at that moment when, after he had heard the decree, he first threw open his lattice towards Jerusalem. As a good general does not wait till the enemy is upon him ere he makes his dispositions, the faithful soul makes prayer the battlefield of his life, and when the actual peril comes, it finds him calm and steady. David Brainerd tells of an intended visit of a band of savage Indians which perturbed him much, but he spent the intervening time in a great agony of prayer, and when they came, the steadiness of his faith awed them and won many to his Master. As with his Lord, the Christians Gethsemane ought always to come before his Calvary. The disciples failed at Calvary because they slept through Gethsemane.
IV. The angel in charge.The victory was already won, and all the rest lay with God. The king was at first infected by the faith of Daniel, but he had had no open lattice, and ere the morning came he was smitten with abject fear at the outcome of his blind pride. But the angel had been in charge, and no hurt was found on Daniel. As Jesus has taught us by His answer to Satan, the angel is not in charge when we presumptuously tempt the keeping power of God, but when we are found in the path of duty and testimony, then the angel of the Lord encampeth round about us; and whatever form our lions may take, though we may not see the angel, by the shut mouths we always know that he is there. This is the great compensation in all trial for His Name, that it does bring us into the near company of all holy beings, while the craven heart never feels even the refreshing breeze from the angels wing.
V. Lastly, see how God brings His servants through trial to triumph.The plotters were caught in their own snare, while Daniel was left peerless, and the story of his life closes in sunshine. But the greatest triumph of his faith was the issue of the kings second decree. The first was meant to minister to his own vanity, but this to give all the glory to the God of Daniel. Surely that was Daniels greatest triumph. His firm faith had brought the king, and the people through the king, to acknowledge the supreme rule of the living God, Who is steadfast for ever. It is much if we have such faith as keeps the angel near us in our lions den, but the wider glory of all faithfulness is that it brings others to look for the angel too. And though, as we have seen, such virtue may be despised and rejected of the evil-hearted, to such as are disposed towards eternal life, she becomes, when once their eyes have been opened to behold her, omnipotently attractive.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Dan 6:16, Being thus goaded by these men, the king was Impelled, against his personal inclination, into carrying out the wicked decree. As the prophet was being thrust Into the den the king commended him to his &od whom, thou servest continually. Whether “the wish was father of the thought,” or he was malting a
challenge of the issue I do not know. However, whatever the expectations of the king were, we may truly consider It a test, both of Daniels faith and of the might or his God.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Dan 6:16. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, &c. The king at last, though with great reluctance, and against his conscience, yields to the violence of Daniels enemies, and signs the warrant for his execution: and that venerable, grave man, who carried such a mixture of majesty and sweetness in his countenance, who had so often shown himself great upon the bench, and at the council-board, but was greater upon his knees; that had power with God and man, and had prevailed, is, purely for worshipping his God, brought, as if he had been one of the vilest malefactors, and thrown into the den of lions to be devoured by them. Thus the best man in the kingdom is made a sacrifice to the vilest! Who can think of it without the utmost compassion for the sufferer, and the utmost indignation against the malicious persecutors? Now the king spake unto Daniel Partly, perhaps, to encourage him, but chiefly, it seems, to excuse himself for giving his consent to so palpable an act of injustice and cruelty, which he ought to have resisted, whatever had been the consequence; Thy God, whom thou servest continually Here the king bears testimony to Daniels integrity and fidelity to his God, notwithstanding that it had influenced him to disobey the new law; he will deliver thee So the Chaldee, the Greek, and Vulgate; but the Syriac and Arabic render the words optatively, May he deliver thee, which seems best, as it is not likely the king, after consenting to so wicked an act, should be inspired with a persuasion from God (and he could have it no other way) of Daniels deliverance. He might, indeed, have heard of the miraculous preservation of Daniels three friends in the fiery furnace, by the power of their God, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar; but he could have no assurance that a similar miracle would now be wrought by the same God. All, therefore, that his words were intended to express, seems to be only a wishful hope, but no certain persuasion.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4. Daniel in the lions’ den 6:16-18
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Darius’ parting words to Daniel are significant. One could render them, "Your God whom you serve continually, He will deliver you." [Note: Franz Rosenthal, A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic, pp. 54-55.] The idea is that Darius had tried to save Daniel and had failed. Now Yahweh must save him. We do not know, of course, if Darius knew about Yahweh’s deliverance of Daniel’s three friends. Again, we see that God did not preserve His servant from difficulty, but brought him though it safely-His normal way of dealing with His own.
"Observable in this assurance of Darius is the deep impression that Daniel’s personal piety and faithfulness to God had made upon the king and that this impression had brought about Darius’ own conviction that Daniel’s God would come to his rescue in Daniel’s extremity." [Note: Walvoord, p. 140.]