12. Then they approached and spoke with the king concerning the edict of the king, “Did you not sign an edict that any person who would seek anything from any God or human within thirty days except from you, O king, would be thrown into the lion pit?” The king answered and said, “The matter as you have just stated is certain according to the law of the Medes and Persians which cannot be revoked.”
13. Then they responded and said before the king, “Daniel, who is from the exiles of Judah, is not paying any attention to you, O king, or to the decree that you have signed, and three times daily he says his prayer.”
14. Then the king, when he heard that report, he was extremely distressed over it; and concerning Daniel he was determined to rescue him. And until the setting of the sun he was making every effort to deliver him.
15. Then these men came as a group to the king and said, “Recall, O king, that with respect to the law of the Medes and Persians that any decree or edict that the king establishes cannot be changed.”
16. Then the king gave the command, and Daniel was brought in and they threw him into the lion pit. The king said to Daniel, “Your God, whom you serve faithfully, may he rescue you!”
17. And a stone was brought and it was put on the entrance of the pit, and the king sealed it with his signet ring and with the signet rings of his lords, so that nothing would be changed concerning Daniel.
18. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night in fasting, and no food was brought in before him and his sleep fled from him.
19. Then the king got up at daybreak, at first light, and he went in haste to the lion pit.
20. And when he came near to the pit, he cried out to Daniel with a distressed voice, and the king spoke and said to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, your God whom you serve faithfully, was he able to rescue you from the lions?”
21. Then Daniel spoke to the king, “O king, live forever!
22. My God sent his angel and he shut the mouth of the lions and they did not hurt me, because before him I was found blameless, and also before you, O king, I have not done any wrong.”
23. Then the king was exceedingly glad over it and commanded that Daniel be lifted up from the pit; and there was not any wound found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
24. The king then commanded, and these men were brought who had accused Daniel, and they threw them and their children and their wives into the lion pit, and they had not reached the floor of the pit before the lions had overpowered them and they had crushed all of their bones.
25. Then Darius the king wrote to all the people, the nations, and the languages living in the whole earth, “May your prosperity become great!
26. I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom people will be trembling and fearing before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and endures forever and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed and his dominion has no end.
27. He is rescuing, delivering, and working signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth, for he has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”
28. So this Daniel prospered during the kingdom of Darius and during the kingdom of Cyrus the Persian.