1. Darius decided to appoint 120 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 one another, “We are not going to find anything of which to accuse Daniel unless it is something in connection with his religion.”
6. So they went to see the king and said, “King Darius, may Your Majesty live for ever!
7. All of us who administer your empire — the supervisors, the governors, the lieutenant-governors, and the other officials — have agreed that Your Majesty should issue an order and enforce it strictly. Give orders that for thirty days no one be permitted to request anything from any god or from any human being except from Your Majesty. Anyone who violates this order is to be thrown into a pit filled with lions.
8. So let Your Majesty issue this order and sign it, and it will be in force, a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.”
9. And so King Darius signed the order.