5 min read

Daniel Urged Cyrus to Rebuild the Temple and Survived the Lions Twice

Daniel outlived Babylon but Jerusalem was still rubble. He pressed Cyrus for the Temple vessels, placed Ezra before the king, and survived the lions twice.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Empire Changed Names, The Rubble Did Not
  2. How Cyrus Received the Vessels
  3. Daniel Put the Leaders Before the King
  4. The Envy That Put Him in the Den
  5. The Morning at the Pit

The Empire Changed Names, The Rubble Did Not

Daniel had outlived Babylon, but Jerusalem was still rubble.

The empire changed names. Palace guards changed uniforms. Kings who had terrified the world were dead or dying. None of that rebuilt a single stone of the Temple. For the exiles, survival was not enough. They needed permission, money, leaders, and a road back to the hill where God's house had burned. Daniel was the one man in the Persian court with enough standing, enough history, and enough credibility to begin opening those doors.

How Cyrus Received the Vessels

The transition was abrupt. Belshazzar, the last Babylonian king, had used the Temple vessels at his feast, pouring wine into the golden cups of the Holy Temple as though they were barware. The writing appeared on the wall that night, and by morning Belshazzar was dead at his own door, cut down by guards following an order he himself had given. The empire passed to Cyrus and Darius in the space of hours.

Daniel fled to Shushtar. Cyrus received him. They made an arrangement: Daniel would pray for God's help in Cyrus's campaign against the king of Mosul, and in return the Temple vessels would begin their road back to Jerusalem. Daniel prayed. Cyrus won the campaign. The first pieces of what had been dragged into Babylonian feasts began their journey home.

Daniel Put the Leaders Before the King

Then Daniel did something more significant than prayer. He brought Ezra and Zerubbabel before Cyrus and made the case directly. He presented the Persian king with a political argument: letting the Jewish people return to rebuild their Temple was not charity. It was the right alignment of the empire with the God who had already demonstrated, through the writing on the wall and through Daniel's own career, that he was not a God one treated as furniture. Cyrus should issue a decree. Cyrus should fund it. Cyrus should send these men back with authorization.

The decree came. The book of Ezra records it. Cyrus issued a proclamation to all the kingdoms of the earth: the Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem. Whoever is among his people, let him go up.

The road back had been opened. Daniel had opened it by being present in the court long enough and trusted enough to make the case.

The Envy That Put Him in the Den

The Persian court's admiration for Daniel curdled into something else once it became clear that Cyrus and Darius intended to elevate him above the other administrators. The officials who had watched Daniel outlast three Babylonian kings were not going to watch him become the most powerful man in Persia without a fight. They looked for accusations and found nothing. He was too careful, too honest, too consistent in his habits. So they made the habit itself into the crime.

They drafted a decree that made prayer to anyone but the king illegal for thirty days. They knew Daniel prayed three times a day facing Jerusalem. They knew he had been doing it since he arrived as an exile and that he would not stop because of a royal edict. They presented the decree to Darius as a routine matter, without mentioning Daniel's name, and Darius signed it.

Daniel went home, opened his window toward Jerusalem, and prayed.

The administrators had him arrested and brought the charge to Darius. The king was distressed to the point of physical illness, and he worked all day to find a legal mechanism to release Daniel, and there was none, because Persian law did not allow a king to revoke what he had signed. At sunset, he sent Daniel into the den.

The Morning at the Pit

Darius came at first light, walking fast. He called out to Daniel before he reached the stone. Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God been able to deliver you from the lions?

Daniel answered from inside the pit: O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths. They have not hurt me. Because I was found innocent before him, and also before you I have done no wrong.

The king was glad. He had the officials who framed Daniel thrown into the den, and the lions had them before they reached the floor. Then Darius issued his own decree: people of every nation and language shall tremble before the God of Daniel. He is the living God. His kingdom shall not be destroyed.

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Legends of the Jews 11:9Legends of the Jews

Belshazzar had ordered the royal doors guarded on the night he profaned the vessels of the Temple in Jerusalem. In Ginzberg's retelling from Legends of the Jews, the order was absolute. No one could enter the palace, even if he claimed to be the king himself.

The command trapped him. Belshazzar left his apartments for a short time, and the guards, Cyrus and Darius, did not notice him pass out. When he returned and demanded admission, they followed the king's own decree. He insisted on his identity. They refused to believe him. While he was still swearing that he was Belshazzar, they struck him dead at the palace gate.

Daniel, who had already read the writing on the wall, fled from the fallen court to Shushtar. Cyrus received him kindly and made a bargain with him: pray that God grant success in the war against the king of Mosul, and Cyrus would send the Temple vessels back to Jerusalem. Daniel prayed. God answered. Cyrus won, and the vessels began their road home.

The punishment fits the shape of the crime. Belshazzar had used holy vessels as props for royal arrogance. By morning, his own royal order had turned against him, and Daniel stood with the ruler who would restore what Babylon had taken.

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Legends of the Jews 11:11Legends of the Jews

Our tale picks up with Daniel, the wise and righteous figure The familiar version gives us, receiving a crucial task. According to Legends of the Jews, it was a divine charge, no less! He was instructed to urge King Cyrus, the Persian ruler, to rebuild the Temple. And to make things happen, Daniel was to introduce Ezra and Zerubbabel to the king.

Ezra, a pivotal figure in Jewish history, then embarked on a mission, traveling from place to place, calling upon the Jewish people to return to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, also known as Palestine. You'd think everyone would jump at the chance. To rebuild their spiritual home?

Sadly, according to the legend, only a tribe and a half responded! Just a small fraction. In fact, the majority of the people were so angry with Ezra that they even sought to kill him! He escaped this perilous situation only through a divine miracle. Imagine the dedication and faith it took to persevere after that kind of rejection.

Daniel's trials weren't over either. He faced his own terrifying ordeal. King Cyrus, swayed by those who resented Daniel’s unwavering faith, cast him into a den of lions because he refused to bow down before the king's idol. Can you picture it?

For seven long days, Daniel lay among the wild beasts. But, miraculously, not a hair on his head was touched! When Cyrus found Daniel alive and well at the end of the week, he was overcome. He couldn't deny the power and majesty of God.

Overwhelmed by this miraculous event, Cyrus released Daniel. And in a twist of divine justice, he had Daniel's accusers thrown to the lions in his place. The legend says they were instantly torn to pieces. A stark reminder of the consequences of false accusations and the swiftness of divine retribution.

So, what are we left with? A story of faith, perseverance, and the unwavering power of belief. It's a reminder that even in the face of immense challenges and seemingly insurmountable odds, divine intervention and unwavering faith can lead to remarkable outcomes, even the rebuilding of a sacred Temple. And sometimes, it involves a den full of hungry lions.

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Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXXChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

The jealous princes of Babylon set a trap with surgical precision. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, they crafted a decree forbidding anyone from praying to any god except the king for thirty days. They sealed it with their own signet rings, and Darius confirmed it without realizing it targeted Daniel.

The conspirators found a girl playing outside Daniel's house who told them exactly where he was: in his upper chamber, kneeling at the window that faced the Temple in Jerusalem, praying three times daily as always. They seized him and dragged him before the king. Darius fought for Daniel until sunset, arguing that the decree was born of envy. The princes threatened rebellion. Finally, the king surrendered Daniel to their hands, saying, "The Lord God of the heavens shall close their mouths."

They cast Daniel into a den holding ten lions that were normally fed ten sheep and ten human bodies each day. The lions had been deliberately starved. But when Daniel descended, the beasts showed him a kind face, licked him, and wagged their tails like dogs greeting their master. A stone was rolled over the pit and sealed with the king's ring.

That same day, the prophet Habakkuk was carrying food to his reapers in the land of Judah when God commanded him to bring the meal to Daniel in Babylon. When Habakkuk protested the impossible distance, an angel seized him by the lock of his hair, lifted him together with his food, and set him down in the lions' den. Daniel ate, and the angel returned Habakkuk home before the reapers even noticed he was gone.

At dawn, Darius rushed to the den and heard Daniel singing praises. The seals were intact. Daniel emerged without a scratch. The princes and their families were thrown in instead, and the starving lions crushed their bones to dust before they hit the ground.

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Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXXIChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

After Daniel walked out of the lions' den unharmed, the king returned with him to the palace and issued an extraordinary declaration. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Darius proclaimed throughout his kingdom: "In all the land there is no god like the God of Daniel who performs miracles and wonders." He pledged silver and gold from his own treasury to rebuild the Temple in Judah.

Orders went out by runners and horsemen to every city, permitting the Jews to go up to Jerusalem. In the first year of Cyrus's reign over the Chaldeans, royal letters commanded the governors beyond the river to supply everything the builders needed: wood, stones, wheat, oil, wine, and livestock for sacrifices.

About forty thousand Jews rose up to make the journey, led by Ezra the priest and scribe, along with Eliakim the priest, Jeshua, Mordecai, and the other chiefs of the families of Judah and Benjamin. They crossed the river, arrived in Jerusalem, and began laying the foundation of the house of God.

The work attracted enemies. Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian sent a poisonous letter to the kings of Media and Persia, warning that a rebuilt Jerusalem would become a threat to royal power. They argued that the Jews had always been strong and dangerous, and that Nebuchadnezzar had exiled them precisely for this reason. The letter reached the King of Persia, and the construction was halted until the second year of the reign of Darius.

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Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXXIVChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Daniel had grown old. He came before the king one last time and asked permission to go home. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Daniel told the king plainly that he no longer had the strength for active governance. Twice he had been thrown to the lions, and his three friends had been cast into the fiery furnace. Through all of it, they never abandoned their God. Now he wanted to return to his native city to worship in peace.

The king was reluctant. "If thou leavest me, how can my kingdom remain in its integrity?" he asked. But he agreed to let Daniel go if Daniel could find a suitable replacement from among his own people.

Daniel went to the assembly of the exiles and found Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, grandson of Jechoniah, King of Judah. Daniel presented him as a man of royal blood, filled with the spirit of God, equal in wisdom to Daniel himself. The king accepted, embraced Daniel, loaded him with gifts, and sent him to Shushan in the land of Elam. Daniel gave all the king's gifts to the suffering exiles and lived among them until his death.

Zerubbabel quickly rose to prominence. One afternoon, while the king slept off his wine, Zerubbabel and two royal princes grew bored standing guard. They proposed a riddle contest. Each wrote his answer to a single question: what is the most powerful thing on earth? The first wrote "a king." The second wrote "wine." Zerubbabel wrote "woman." They placed the scroll under the king's pillow, not knowing that Darius was awake and listening. When the court assembled, the king called the three young men forward to defend their answers before the entire kingdom.

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