Bel and the Dragon
Chapter 1
1: When King Astyages was laid with his fathers,
Cyrus the Persian received his kingdom.
2: And Daniel was a companion
of the king, and was the most honored of his friends.
3: Now the
Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day they spent on it twelve
bushels of fine flour and forty sheep and fifty gallons of wine.
4:
The king revered it and went every day to worship it. But Daniel worshiped his
own God.
5: And the king said to him, "Why do you not worship Bel?"
He answered, "Because I do not revere man-made idols, but the living God, who
created heaven and earth and has dominion over all flesh."
6: The
king said to him, "Do you not think that Bel is a living God? Do you not see how
much he eats and drinks every day?"
7: Then Daniel laughed, and said,
"Do not be deceived, O king; for this is but clay inside and brass outside, and
it never ate or drank anything."
8: Then the king was angry, and he
called his priests and said to them, "If you do not tell me who is eating these
provisions, you shall die.
9: But if you prove that Bel is eating
them, Daniel shall die, because he blasphemed against Bel." And Daniel said to
the king, "Let it be done as you have said."
10: Now there were
seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children. And the king went with
Daniel into the temple of Bel.
11: And the priests of Bel said,
"Behold, we are going outside; you yourself, O king, shall set forth the food
and mix and place the wine, and shut the door and seal it with your signet.
12: And when you return in the morning, if you do not find that Bel
has eaten it all, we will die; or else Daniel will, who is telling lies about
us."
13: They were unconcerned, for beneath the table they had made a
hidden entrance, through which they used to go in regularly and consume the
provisions.
14: When they had gone out, the king set forth the food
for Bel. Then Daniel ordered his servants to bring ashes and they sifted them
throughout the whole temple in the presence of the king alone. Then they went
out, shut the door and sealed it with the king's signet, and departed.
15: In the night the priests came with their wives and children, as
they were accustomed to do, and ate and drank everything.
16: Early
in the morning the king rose and came, and Daniel with him.
17: And
the king said, "Are the seals unbroken, Daniel?" He answered, "They are
unbroken, O king."
18: As soon as the doors were opened, the king
looked at the table, and shouted in a loud voice, "You are great, O Bel; and
with you there is no deceit, none at all."
19: Then Daniel laughed,
and restrained the king from going in, and said, "Look at the floor, and notice
whose footsteps these are."
20: The king said, "I see the footsteps
of men and women and children."
21: Then the king was enraged, and he
seized the priests and their wives and children; and they showed him the secret
doors through which they were accustomed to enter and devour what was on the
table.
22: Therefore the king put them to death, and gave Bel over to
Daniel, who destroyed it and its temple.
23: There was also a great
dragon, which the Babylonians revered.
24: And the king said to
Daniel, "You cannot deny that this is a living god; so worship him."
25: Daniel said, "I will worship the Lord my God, for he is the
living God.
26: But if you, O king, will give me permission, I will
slay the dragon without sword or club." The king said, "I give you permission."
27: Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair, and boiled them together
and made cakes, which he fed to the dragon. The dragon ate them, and burst open.
And Daniel said, "See what you have been worshiping!"
28: When the
Babylonians heard it, they were very indignant and conspired against the king,
saying, "The king has become a Jew; he has destroyed Bel, and slain the dragon,
and slaughtered the priests."
29: Going to the king, they said, "Hand
Daniel over to us, or else we will kill you and your household."
30:
The king saw that they were pressing him hard, and under compulsion he handed
Daniel over to them.
31: They threw Daniel into the lions' den, and
he was there for six days.
32: There were seven lions in the den, and
every day they had been given two human bodies and two sheep; but these were not
given to them now, so that they might devour Daniel.
33: Now the
prophet Habakkuk was in Judea. He had boiled pottage and had broken bread into a
bowl, and was going into the field to take it to the reapers.
34: But
the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk, "Take the dinner which you have to
Babylon, to Daniel, in the lions' den."
35: Habakkuk said, "Sir, I
have never seen Babylon, and I know nothing about the den."
36: Then
the angel of the Lord took him by the crown of his head, and lifted him by his
hair and set him down in Babylon, right over the den, with the rushing sound of
the wind itself.
37: Then Habakkuk shouted, "Daniel, Daniel! Take the
dinner which God has sent you."
38: And Daniel said, "Thou hast
remembered me, O God, and hast not forsaken those who love thee."
39:
So Daniel arose and ate. And the angel of God immediately returned Habakkuk to
his own place.
40: On the seventh day the king came to mourn for
Daniel. When he came to the den he looked in, and there sat Daniel.
41: And the king shouted with a loud voice, "Thou art great, O Lord
God of Daniel, and there is no other besides thee."
42: And he pulled
Daniel out, and threw into the den the men who had attempted his destruction,
and they were devoured immediately before his eyes.