The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Daniel 14
Bel and the Dragon
1 †King Astyages was gathered to his fathers,
and Cyrus the Persian received his
kingdom.
2 Daniel lived with the king, and was
honored above all his friends.
3 Now the Babylonians had an idol called
Bel, and every day twelve great measures
of fine flour, forty sheep, and six firkins‡ of
wine were spent on it.
4 The king honored it and went daily to
worship it; but Daniel worshiped his own
God. The king said to him, “Why don’t you
worship Bel?”
5 He said, “Because I may not honor idols
made with hands, but only the living God,
who has created the sky and the earth, and
has sovereignty over all flesh.”
6 Then the king said to him, “Don’t you
think that Bel is a living god? Don’t you see
how much he eats and drinks every day?”
7 Then Daniel laughed, and said, “O king,
don’t be deceived; for this is just clay
inside, and brass outside, and never ate or
drank anything.”
8 So the king was angry, and called for
his priests, and said to them, “If you don’t
tell me who this is who devours
these expenses, you shall die.
9 But if you cans how me thatBel devours
them, then Daniel shall die; for he has
spoken blasphemy against Bel.”
Daniel said to the king, “Let it
be according to your word.”
10 Now there were seventy priests of Bel,
besides their wives and children. The king
went with Daniel into Bel’s temple.
11 So Bel’s priests said, “Behold, we will
leave; but you, O king, set out the food, and
mix the wine and set it out, shut the door
securely, and seal it with your own signet.
12 When you come in the morning, if you
don’t find that Bel has eaten everything,
we will suffer death, or else Daniel, who
speaks falsely against us.”
13 They weren’t concerned, for under
the table they had made a secret entrance,
by which they entered in continually, and
consumed those things.
14 It happened, when they had gone out,
the king set the food before Bel. Now
Daniel had commanded his servants to
bring ashes, and they scattered them all
over the temple in the presence of the king
alone. Then they went out, shut the door,
sealed it with the king’s signet, and so departed.
15 Now inthenight,thepriests came with
their wives and children, as they usually
did, and ate and drank it all.
16 In the morning, the king arose, and
Daniel with him.
17 The king said, “Daniel, are the seals
whole?” He said, “Yes, O king, they are whole.”
18 And as soon as he had opened the
door, the king looked atthe table, and cried
witha loud voice, “Youare great, O Bel, and
with you is no deceit at all!”
19 Then Daniel laughed, and held the
king that he should not go in, and said,
“Behold now the pavement, and mark well
whose footsteps these are.”
20 The king said, “I see the footsteps of
men, women, and children.” Then the king
was angry,
21 and took the priests with their wives
and children, who showed him the secret
doors, where they came in and consumed
the things that were on the table.
22 Therefore the king killed them, and
delivered Bel into Daniel’s power, who
overthrew it and its temple.
23 In that same place there was a great
dragon which the people of Babylon worshiped.
24 The king said to Daniel, “Will you also
say that this is of brass? Behold, he lives,
eats and drinks. You can’t say that he is no
living god. Therefore worship him.”
25 Then Daniel said, “I will worship the
Lord my God; for he is a living God
26 But allow me, O king, and I will killthis
dragon without sword or staff.”
The king said, “I allow you.”
27 Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair,
and melted them together, and made
lumps of them. He put these in the
dragon’s mouth, so the dragon ate and
burst apart. Daniel said, “Behold, these are
the gods you all worship.”
28 When the people of Babylon heard
that, they took great indignation, and conspired
against the king, saying, “The king
has become a Jew. He has pulled down Bel,
slain the dragon, and put the priests to the
sword.”
29 So they came to the king, and said, “Deliver
Daniel to us, or else we will destroy
you and your house.”
30 Now when the king saw that they
trapped him, being constrained, the king
delivered Daniel to them.
31 They cast him into the lion’s den,
where he was six days.
32 There were seven lions in the den, and
they had been giving them two carcasses
and two sheep every day, which then were
not given to them, intending that they
would devour Daniel.
33 Now there was in Jewry the prophet
Habakkuk,§ who had made stew, and had
broken bread into a bowl. He was going
into the field to bring it to the reapers.
34 But the angel of the Lord said to
Habakkuk, “Go carry the dinner that you
have into Babylon to Daniel, in the lions’
den.”
35 Habakkuk said, “Lord, I never saw
Babylon. I don’t know where the den is.”
36 Then the angel ofthe Lord took him by
the crown, and lifted him up by the hair of
his head, and with the blast of his breath
set him in Babylon over the den.
37 Habakkuk cried, saying, “O Daniel,
Daniel, take the dinner which God has sent
you.”
38 Daniel said, “You have remembered
me, O God! You haven’t forsaken those
who love you!”
39 So Daniel arose and ate; and the angel of
God set Habakkuk in his own place
again immediately.
40 On the seventh day, the king came to
mourn for Daniel. When he came to the
den, he looked in, and, behold, Daniel was
sitting.
41 Then the king cried with a loud voice,
saying, “Great are you, O Lord, you God
of Daniel, and there is none other beside
you!”
42 So he drew him out, and castthose that
were the cause of his destruction into the
den; and they were devoured in a moment
before his face.