Daniel 6:20-22

20 When he had come near the den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice. The king spoke and said to Daniel, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has 1your God, whom you constantly serve, been 2able to deliver you from the lions?"
21 Then Daniel spoke to the king, "3O king, live forever!
22 "My God 4sent His angel and 5shut the lions' mouths and they have not harmed me, inasmuch * * as I was found innocent before Him; and also toward you, O king, I have committed no crime."

Daniel 6:20-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DANIEL 6

This chapter gives an account of Daniel's being cast into the den of lions, and the causes of it, and the steps leading to it; and also of his wonderful deliverance out of it, and what followed upon that. It first relates how Daniel was made by Darius first president of the princes of the kingdom, which drew their envy upon him, Da 6:1-4, and that these princes finding they could get no occasion against him, but in religion, proposed to the king to make a law forbidding prayer to any god for thirty days, which they got established, Da 6:5-9, and Daniel breaking this law, is accused by them to the king; and the penalty, casting into the den of lions, is insisted on to be executed, Da 6:10-13, which the king laboured to prevent, but in vain; and Daniel is cast to the lions, to the great grief of the king, Da 6:14-18, who visited the den the next morning, and to his great joy found Daniel alive, Da 6:19-23, upon which, by the law of retaliation, his accusers, their wives, and children, were cast into it, Da 6:24, and an edict was published by the king, commanding all in his dominions to fear and reverence the God of Daniel, Da 6:25-28.

Cross References 5

  • 1. Daniel 6:16, 27
  • 2. Genesis 18:14; Numbers 11:23; Jeremiah 32:17; Daniel 3:17
  • 3. Daniel 2:4; Daniel 6:6
  • 4. Numbers 20:16; Isaiah 63:9; Daniel 3:28; Acts 12:11; Hebrews 1:14
  • 5. Psalms 91:11-13; 2 Timothy 4:17; Hebrews 11:33

Footnotes 3

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