Bel and the Dragon[a]
Chapter 14
A God without Life. 1 After King Astyages was laid to rest with his ancestors, Cyrus the Persian succeeded him as king. 2 Daniel was a close associate of the king and the most highly respected of all his friends.[b]
3 The Babylonians had an idol called Bel,[c] and every day they provided it with an offering of twelve bushels of the finest flour, forty sheep, and six measures of wine. 4 Even the king revered this idol and went each day to worship it. But Daniel adored only his own God.
5 So the king asked him, “Why do you refuse to adore Bel?” Daniel replied: “Because I do not worship idols that were fashioned by human hands. I worship only the living God who created heaven and earth and has dominion over all living creatures.”
6 The king persisted: “Do you not believe that Bel is a living god? Can you not see how much he eats and drinks every day?” 7 Laughing, Daniel said, “Do not be deceived, O king. This idol of yours is composed of nothing but clay inside and bronze outside. It has never eaten or drunk anything.”
8 On hearing these words the king became infuriated. He summoned the priests of Bel and said to them, “If you do not tell me who is consuming these provisions, you shall die. 9 However, if you can prove that it is Bel who is eating and drinking them, then Daniel shall be put to death for his blasphemy against Bel.” Daniel said to the king, “Let it be as you say.”
10 Now there were seventy priests of Bel, in addition to their wives and children. The king, accompanied by Daniel, entered the temple of Bel, 11 and the priests of Bel said to him, “We will now take our leave. We ask you, O king, to set out the food yourself and the wine you have prepared. Then lock the door and seal it with your signet ring. 12 When you return in the morning, if you do not discover that Bel has consumed all of it, order us to be put to death. If such is not the case, then Daniel must die for his blasphemy in making false charges against us.” 13 They were not worried about the outcome because beneath the table they had constructed a secret entrance through which they always used to come in and consume all the provisions.
14 After the priests had departed and the king had set out the food for Bel, Daniel ordered his servants to bring some ashes and to scatter them throughout the temple, in the presence of the king. They then all went outside, sealed the locked door with the royal signet ring, and departed. 15 The priests, as was their custom, came by night with their wives and children, and they ate and drank everything.
16 Early the next morning the king rose and came with Daniel. 17 The king asked, “Are the seals unbroken Daniel?” “They are unbroken, O king,” he replied. 18 As soon as the door was opened, the king looked at the table and cried out, “Great are you, O Bel. There is no deceit in you.” 19 But Daniel laughed as he restrained the king from entering.
“Look at the floor,” he said, “and take note whose footprints these are.” 20 The king replied, “I see the footprints of men, women, and children.”
21 Enraged, the king ordered the priests to be arrested together with their wives and children. They showed him the secret door through which they used to enter to consume the provisions on the table. 22 The king ordered them to be put to death, and he handed over Bel to Daniel, who destroyed both the idol and its temple.
23 Again among the Lions. The Babylonians also worshiped a huge dragon.[d] 24 The king said to Daniel, “You surely cannot deny that this is a living god. Therefore, I command you to adore it.” 25 Daniel replied, “I adore only the Lord, my God, for he is the living God. 26 If you give me permission, O king, I shall kill this dragon without using either sword or club.” “I grant you permission,” said the king.
27 Then Daniel gathered some pitch, fat, and hair. He boiled them together and formed the mixture into cakes, which he placed into the mouth of the dragon. When the dragon swallowed them, he burst open. Daniel said, “Behold what you have been worshiping.”
28 When the Babylonians learned about this, they became enraged and turned their anger against the king. “The king has become a Jew,” they said. “He has destroyed Bel, slain the dragon, and put the priests to death.” 29 Therefore, they went to the king and demanded, “Hand Daniel over to us, or else we shall slay you and your family.” 30 Faced with this violent threat, the king was compelled to turn over Daniel to them.
31 They threw Daniel into the den of lions, and, he was left there for six days. 32 In that den there were seven lions, and each day two human carcasses and two sheep had usually been fed to them. Now, however, they were given nothing, to ensure that they would devour Daniel.
33 In Judea at that time, there was the prophet Habakkuk. Having prepared a stew and mixed it in a bowl with some bread, he was on his way to take it to the reapers in the field. 34 The angel of the Lord instructed him, “Take the meal you have prepared to Daniel who is in Babylon in the lions’ den. 35 Habakkuk replied, “Sir, I have never been to Babylon, and I do not have any idea where the den is.” 36 Thereupon the angel of the Lord grasped him by the crown of his head and, carrying him by his hair, with the speed of the wind, set him down in Babylon above the den.
37 Habakkuk shouted, “Daniel, Daniel, take the food that God has sent to you.” 38 Daniel said, “You have remembered me, O God. You have not abandoned those who love you.” 39 He then got up and began to eat. Meanwhile the angel of the Lord immediately carried Habakkuk back to his own country.
40 On the seventh day the king came to weep for Daniel. When he arrived at the den and looked in, he saw Daniel sitting there. 41 The king cried aloud, “You are great, O Lord, the God of Daniel, and there is no other god but you.” 42 He then had Daniel lifted out of the den and ordered those who had plotted Daniel’s destruction to be thrown into it. Those individuals were devoured before his eyes in an instant.
Footnotes
- Daniel 14:1 Written to combat idolatry, these two accounts caricature the pagan cults. They prove that the false gods do not eat and that the divinized animals can break apart from indigestible food. The hero ends up—as in the episode in chapter 3—in the lions’ den. Onto the account of the dragon, the author has grafted an edifying portrait of the prophet Habakkuk carried away by the angel, possibly based on Ezekiel (Ezek 8:3). In the face of so many present deeds, one can only glorify the God of the Jews!
- Daniel 14:2 The Septuagint reads: “There was once a priest by the name of Daniel, the son of Abal, and a favorite of the king of Babylon.”
- Daniel 14:3 Bel: Marduk, the Babylonian god corresponding to Baal, which was a name common to many Semitic divinities.
- Daniel 14:23 The Greek historian Herodotus (fifth century B.C.) attests to the worship of a living serpent in Babylon!