Daniel 6:1

1 Darius decided to appoint a hundred and twenty governors to hold office throughout his empire.

Daniel 6:1 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 6:1

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and
twenty princes
This is the same Darius mentioned in the latter part of the preceding chapter; who, as soon as he took the kingdom of Babylon, divided it into a hundred and twenty provinces, as Jacchiades observes; as was the manner of the Medes and Persians. So Darius the son of Hystaspes divided the kingdom of Persia into twenty provinces, and set governors over each, according to Herodotus ^F18; to these hundred and twenty provinces seven more were afterwards added, through the victories of Cyrus and Cambyses, and Darius Itystaspes, ( Esther 1:1 ) . Josephus ^F19, through forgetfulness, makes these princes and provinces three hundred and sixty: which should be over the whole kingdom;
or, "in the whole kingdom" ^F20; in the several parts of it, and take care of all things relative to the civil government of it, both for the honour and advantage of the king, and the good of the subjects.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 Thalia, sive l. 3. c. 89.
F19 Antiqu. l. 10. c. 11. sect. 4.
F20 (atwklm lkb) "in toto regno", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Cocceius; "toti regno", Junius & Tremellius.

Daniel 6:1 In-Context

1 Darius decided to appoint a hundred and twenty governors to hold office throughout his empire.

2 In addition, he chose Daniel and two others to supervise the governors and to look after the king's interests.

3 Daniel soon showed that he could do better work than the other supervisors or the governors. Because he was so outstanding, the king considered putting him in charge of the whole empire.

4 Then the other supervisors and the governors tried to find something wrong with the way Daniel administered the empire, but they couldn't, because Daniel was reliable and did not do anything wrong or dishonest.

5 They said to each other, "We are not going to find anything of which to accuse Daniel unless it is something in connection with his religion."