Page 171 - Daniel

DANIEL’S ENEMIES DESTROYED (6:24)

6:24 And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously
accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they,
their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of
the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in
pieces.

The sad end of Daniel’s accusers and their families is recorded as an
act of divine justice upon the enemies of God’s servant. Such barbarity

was common in the ancient world, and not without parallel even in
God’s divine judgment upon the wicked as illustrated in His judgment
upon Dathan, Abiram, and Korah when they and their families were
swallowed up in an earthquake (Num. 16). The punishment meted out
conformed to the injunction about the treatment of false witnesses in the
law (Deut. 19:16–21). This principle of lex talionis is also illustrated in

the case of Haman (Esth. 7:9–10). God had threatened to act in the same
way against nations that sought to harm His people. “For the day of the
LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done [to my people], it
shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head” (Obad.
15).

Some critics have pointed with ridicule to the impossibility of casting
120 officials plus their wives and children into one lions’ den.

Montgomery, for instance, regards this “tragic denouement” as “indeed
absurd,” as well as the entire story. The Septuagint, apparently in an
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effort to counter this criticism, makes the victims only the two men who
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were presidents with Daniel, and, therefore, his principal accusers. The
Scriptures do not say that all the princes and presidents were killed, but
only those who had accused Daniel—that is, the ringleaders. This served
notice on the rest, if they had any further inclination to plot against

Daniel. The experience of Daniel’s false accusers is another illustration of
God’s faithfulness to the basic Abrahamic Covenant where God promised
to bless those who blessed Abraham’s seed and to curse those who
cursed them (Gen. 12:3).

THE DECREE OF DARIUS (6:25–28)