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Rh which altereth not.' Then answered they and said before the king: 'That Daniel, who is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the interdict that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day.' Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him. Then these men came tumultuously unto the king, and said unto the king: 'Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians, that no interdict nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed.' 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.' And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.

Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting; neither were diversions brought before him; and his sleep fled from him. Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. And when he came near unto the den to Daniel, he cried with a pained voice; the king spoke and said to Daniel: 'O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?' Then said Daniel unto the king: 'O king, live for ever! My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and 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.' Then was the king exceeding glad, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he had trusted in his God. And the king commanded, and they brought those men that had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and they had not come to the bottom of the den, when the lions had the mastery of them, and broke all their bones in pieces.

Then king Darius wrote unto all the peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: 'Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, that in all the 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;
 * He delivereth and rescueth,
 * And He worketh signs and wonders
 * In heaven and in earth;
 * Who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.'

So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed; then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spoke and said: I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven broke forth upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one