Daniel 6

VBL · Chapter 6/12

¹Darío decidió que sería bueno poner el reino bajo el control de ciento veinte gobernadores provinciales.

²Tres ministros principales fueron puestos al frente de ellos para velar por los intereses del rey. Daniel era uno de los tres.

³Pronto Daniel demostró ser un administrador mucho mejor que los otros ministros principales y gobernadores provinciales. Debido a su excepcional habilidad, el rey planeó ponerlo a cargo de todo el reino.

⁴Como resultado, los otros ministros principales y gobernadores provinciales trataron de encontrar un pretexto contra Daniel en cuanto a la forma en que dirigía el reino. Pero no pudieron encontrar ningún motivo de queja ni de corrupción, pues él era digno de confianza. No pudieron descubrir ninguna prueba de que Daniel fuera negligente o corrupto.

⁵Así que se dijeron: “No encontraremos ningún pretexto para atacar a Daniel, a menos que utilicemos su observancia de las leyes de su Dios en su contra”.

⁶Así que estos ministros principales y gobernadores provinciales fueron juntos a ver al rey. “¡Que su majestad el rey Darío viva para siempre!”, dijeron.

⁷“Hemos acordado todos -ministros principales, prefectos, gobernadores provinciales, consejeros y gobernadores locales- que Su Majestad emita un decreto, de cumplimiento legal, para que durante los próximos treinta días cualquiera que rece a cualquier dios o ser humano excepto usted, Su Majestad, sea arrojado al foso de los leones.

⁸Ahora bien, Su Majestad, si usted firma el decreto y lo hace publicar de manera que no pueda ser cambiado, de acuerdo con la ley de los medos y los persas que no puede ser revocada”.

⁹Así que Darío firmó el decreto para convertirlo en ley.

¹⁰Cuando Daniel se enteró de que el decreto había sido firmado, se dirigió a su casa, a su habitación del piso superior, donde oraba tres veces al día, con las ventanas abiertas hacia Jerusalén. Allí se arrodilló, orando y agradeciendo a su Dios como siempre lo hacía.

¹¹Entonces los hombres que habían conspirado contra Daniel fueron juntos y lo encontraron orando a su Dios y pidiendo ayuda.

¹²Enseguida fueron a ver al rey y le preguntaron por el decreto. “¿No firmó Su Majestad un decreto según el cual, durante los próximos treinta días, cualquiera que ore a cualquier dios o ser humano, excepto a usted, Su Majestad, sería arrojado al foso de los leones?”

¹³Entonces le dijeron al rey: “Daniel, uno de esos cautivos de Judá, no hace caso a Su Majestad ni al decreto que usted firmó y reza tres veces al día”.

¹⁴Cuando el rey oyó esto, se molestó mucho y trató de pensar en cómo salvar a Daniel. Trabajó con ahínco hasta el atardecer tratando de rescatarlo.

¹⁵Entonces los hombres regresaron juntos y le dijeron al rey: “Usted sabe, Su Majestad, que según la ley de los medos y los persas no se puede cambiar ningún decreto o estatuto”.

¹⁶Finalmente, el rey dio la orden y Daniel fue llevado y arrojado al foso de los leones. El rey le dijo: “¡Que te salve el Dios al que tan lealmente sirves!”.

¹⁷Se trajo una piedra y se colocó sobre la entrada del foso, y el rey la selló con su propio sello personal y el de sus nobles, para que nadie pudiera intervenir en lo que le ocurriera a Daniel.

¹⁸Entonces el rey regresó a su palacio. Esa noche no comió nada en absoluto y rechazó cualquier tipo de entretenimiento. No pudo pegar ojo.

¹⁹Al amanecer, en cuanto salió el sol, el rey se levantó y corrió hacia el foso de los leones.

²⁰Al acercarse al foso, llamó con ansiedad a Daniel: “Daniel, siervo del Dios vivo, al que honras tan fielmente, ¿ha podido tu Dios salvarte de los leones?”

²¹Daniel respondió: “¡Que su majestad el rey viva para siempre!

²²Mi Dios envió a su ángel para cerrar la boca de los leones. No me han hecho daño porque he sido hallado inocente a sus ojos. Además, nunca le he hecho ningún mal, Su Majestad”.

²³El rey se alegró mucho y ordenó que sacaran a Daniel del foso. Daniel fue sacado del foso y se comprobó que no tenía ninguna herida porque había confiado en su Dios.

²⁴Entonces el rey ordenó que trajeran a los hombres que habían acusado a Daniel y los arrojaron al foso de los leones junto con sus esposas e hijos. Antes de que llegaran al suelo del foso, los leones los atacaron y los despedazaron.

²⁵Entonces Darío escribió a todos los pueblos del mundo, a las diferentes naciones y lenguas, diciendo: “Mis mejores deseos para ustedes.

²⁶Yo decreto que en todo mi reino todos deben respetar y honrar al Dios de Daniel, porque él es el Dios vivo. Él es eterno y su reino nunca será destruido. Su reino no tendrá fin.

²⁷Él es el que rescata y salva; hace milagros y maravillas en los cielos y en la tierra. Él salvó a Daniel de la muerte en el foso de los leones”.

²⁸Daniel experimentó un buen éxito durante los reinados de Darío y Ciro el Persa.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Envy among his colleagues leads to the creation of a manipulative law against Daniel, who continues praying openly to God even knowing about the decree. He is thrown into the lions' den, but God shuts the animals' mouths, and Daniel comes out unharmed.

Explanation

The trap set by Daniel's rivals cleverly exploits the inflexible law of the Medes and Persians, which once signed by the king could not be revoked even by himself (v.8,15) — a real historical detail about the legal rigidity of that empire. Daniel's choice to keep praying three times a day with his windows open toward Jerusalem, even knowing the risk (v.10), demonstrates a faithfulness that does not hide out of fear, but also does not seek unnecessary provocation — he simply continues his normal practice. The genuine anguish of King Darius himself, who fasts and spends the night in vigil for Daniel (v.18), shows the respect that Daniel's consistent integrity had earned even from a pagan ruler. The miraculous deliverance reinforces a central theme of the book: God protects those who remain faithful, even when it demands courage in the face of real danger.

Fun facts

The practice of praying three times a day facing Jerusalem, mentioned here, became a documented Jewish custom in other historical sources and is still practiced, in adapted forms, in Jewish tradition to this day.
The irrevocability of Medo-Persian laws, mentioned twice in this chapter, is confirmed by ancient historians as a real and rigid feature of that empire's legal system, distinct from other empires of the time.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Daniel 6:1Dividing the empire into 120 satrapies was a massive administrative undertaking, fitting the size of the Medo-Persian domain after Babylon’s fall recorded at the end of the previous chapter.
Daniel 6:2Placing Daniel among just three supervisors over 120 governors shows that, even now elderly and serving since Nebuchadnezzar’s time, he was still chosen for the new empire’s most trusted posts.
Daniel 6:3The king’s intention to promote Daniel above all the others is exactly the trigger that provokes the envy and conspiracy described in the following verses.
Daniel 6:4The thorough search for any administrative fault in Daniel, and the complete failure to find one, show, even before the religious accusation, that his integrity was recognized even by his own rivals.
Daniel 6:5Realizing they could only attack Daniel through his faith, not through incompetence or corruption, is an unwitting confession by his own enemies about his character.
Daniel 6:6The formal greeting before proposing the trap is the same courtesy formula used in other court scenes in the book, a way of opening the conversation before manipulating the king.
Daniel 6:7The idea that a law of the Medes and Persians, once signed, ‘altereth not,’ not even by the king himself, reflects something tradition attributed to Persian royal ideology — the conspirators use precisely this rule to trap Darius in a snare he himself can no longer escape.
Daniel 6:8Insisting on the irrevocability of Medo-Persian law is the cleverest part of the trap: the conspirators know that once signed, not even the king himself can undo the decree after realizing his mistake.
Daniel 6:9The king signs without noticing the trap, probably out of vanity: a decree requiring petitions to himself alone for thirty days sounds like tribute to his own authority, not a disguised threat against anyone in particular.
Daniel 6:10Praying three times a day facing Jerusalem, with the window open, describes a Jewish custom of praying at fixed hours facing toward the temple — even exiled hundreds of miles away, Daniel keeps this physical orientation as part of the habit.
Daniel 6:11The conspirators have to go to Daniel’s house to catch him in the act, which suggests his prayer routine was known and predictable, not hidden — he does not change the habit even knowing the risk.
Daniel 6:12The accusers make the king publicly confirm his own law before revealing who broke it, a tactic that closes off any way for him to reverse the decision afterward.
Daniel 6:13Reminding the king that Daniel is ‘of the children of the captivity of Judah’ reinforces his foreignness before the king, a subtle way of disqualifying him as an outsider, despite decades of loyal service to the empire.
Daniel 6:14The king spends the whole day trying to find a legal way out to save Daniel, revealing that he had been manipulated by his advisors and clearly saw the injustice of the very trap he had signed.
Daniel 6:15The conspirators come back to press the king before he can find a loophole, showing they were watchful and determined to make sure the sentence against Daniel was carried out.
Daniel 6:16The king’s words as Daniel is thrown into the den sound more like hope than certainty — he himself seems surprised to be expressing faith in someone else’s God in a situation he cannot control.
Daniel 6:17Sealing the stone over the den with the king’s own signet and the nobles’ signets was a legal security measure: anyone who tampered with the seal would be identified, an ancient way of guaranteeing that neither side could interfere with the sentence’s execution.
Daniel 6:18Fasting and refusing music through the night was typical mourning behavior in that culture — the king already acts as though he were holding a vigil for Daniel’s death, even without knowing the outcome for certain.
Daniel 6:19The king’s haste at first light, without ceremony, shows the anxiety of someone who spent the whole night awake waiting for the outcome.
Daniel 6:20Calling Daniel’s God ‘the living God’ before even knowing the outcome suggests the king was already inclined to believe in Him, perhaps influenced by the earlier chapters’ accounts of Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 6:21Daniel’s answer uses the very same formal greeting the conspirators had used to open their accusation — Daniel keeps court protocol even while coming straight out of a den of lions.
Daniel 6:22Daniel makes clear that his innocence holds both before God and before the king himself — he never disobeyed out of rebellion, only because he could not give up his daily prayer.
Daniel 6:23The text’s final explanation, ‘because he believed in his God,’ is one of the few times in the book that Daniel’s personal faith, not just God’s power, is cited as the direct reason for his deliverance.
Daniel 6:24Throwing into the den not only Daniel’s accusers but their families as well reflects a harsh custom common in the ancient world: punishing entire clans for the treachery of one member, not just the individual responsible.
Daniel 6:25The opening formula of Darius’s letter repeats almost exactly that of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4 — the same format of a royal decree addressed to all the peoples of the empire appears twice in the book.
Daniel 6:26Just like Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4, Darius issues a public decree acknowledging Daniel’s God, without necessarily abandoning his own gods, but declaring that this particular God deserves reverence throughout the empire.
Daniel 6:27The decree closes by citing the very miracle that had just happened as concrete proof of God’s power, not some abstract statement of faith.
Daniel 6:28Mentioning both reigns, Darius and Cyrus, closes the arc of Daniel’s career the same way chapter 1 had already signaled: he spans the entire transition from Babylonian to Persian rule without losing his position.