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Daniel Prayed With His Windows Open and the Lions Did Not Touch Him

The officials who wanted Daniel destroyed couldn't find a flaw in his work. They built a law around the one thing they knew he wouldn't stop doing.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Search for a Fault
  2. The Open Windows
  3. The Night the King Could Not Sleep
  4. Habakkuk's Stew in the Lions' Den

The Search for a Fault

They went through everything. Every document Daniel had signed, every administrative decision, every account from his years in service under the Babylonians and now under Darius the Mede. They could not find a single error, a single corrupt act, a single instance of negligence. The man who had risen from Jewish captive to governor over three hundred and sixty provincial chiefs had given them nothing to use.

There was only one approach left. They went to the king with a proposal. The plan required dressing up their objective in the language of royal honor. They convinced Darius to issue a decree: for thirty days, prayer or petition to any god or any human being except the king would be punishable by being thrown to the lions. It was flattery constructed as law, and it was designed for one man. Darius, who trusted Daniel and was fond of him, signed it. The law of the Medes and Persians cannot be revoked once issued. The trap was closed.

The Open Windows

Daniel heard about the decree. He went home, climbed to the upper room where his windows opened toward Jerusalem, and prayed. Three times that day, as he had always done. His enemies were watching the windows. They saw him in the act of prayer, ran to the king, and invoked the decree.

Darius was sick with himself when he understood what had happened. He knew what the decree meant for Daniel. He spent the rest of the day trying to find a legal way out. He could not. The officials came back at sunset with the law in hand. The king gave the order. Daniel was brought and thrown into the pit where the lions were kept. Darius said to Daniel as they lowered him in: may your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you.

The Night the King Could Not Sleep

Darius went back to his palace and fasted. He called for no entertainment. He could not sleep. At first light he ran to the pit and called out in anguish: Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?

Daniel's voice came up from the pit. He was alive. He said: my God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths. They have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him. And also before you, O king, I have done no harm.

The king was overjoyed. He ordered Daniel pulled up immediately. Not a scratch on him, no wound of any kind, because he had trusted in his God. Darius then commanded that Daniel's accusers, together with their children and wives, be thrown into the lions' pit. The lions overwhelmed them before they reached the bottom.

Habakkuk's Stew in the Lions' Den

A separate tradition, preserved in the deuterocanonical text known as Bel and the Dragon, describes a second time Daniel spent the night in a lions' pit in Babylon, this one lasting seven days. In this account, the prophet Habakkuk was in Judea preparing a stew for his workers when an angel seized him by the hair and carried him through the air to Babylon in an instant, delivering the food to Daniel in the pit. It was the meal Daniel needed to survive the week. When the seven days ended, the angel carried Habakkuk back to Judea.

The two accounts, one in Daniel and one in Bel and the Dragon, describe the same pattern: isolation, total helplessness, divine preservation in the place of death, and the testimony of a foreign king who witnessed the protection and declared it publicly. Each account is a statement that the God who closed the mouths of lions in a Babylonian pit was more powerful than every decree a human king could seal with his ring.

DanielMiraclesFaithProphecyExile
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From the tradition

Sources

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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.

Antiquities X.11Antiquities of the Jews (Josephus)

Daniel survived the fall of Babylon. When Darius the Mede took the kingdom, he elevated Daniel to the highest office in the empire, one of only three governors ruling over 360 provincial chiefs. Daniel was so capable and so favored that the other officials burned with jealousy. They needed a way to destroy him.

They found it in his faith. Josephus records that the jealous governors convinced Darius to issue a decree: for thirty days, no one could pray to any god or man except the king, on penalty of being thrown to the lions. Darius signed it. Daniel heard about the law and changed nothing. Three times a day he opened his windows toward Jerusalem and prayed to God, exactly as he had always done.

His enemies were watching. They caught him in the act and ran to the king. Darius, who genuinely loved Daniel, was trapped by his own decree, under Persian law, a royal edict could not be revoked. He spent the entire day trying to find a legal loophole. There was none. At sunset, Daniel was thrown into the den of lions.

Darius could not sleep that night. At dawn he ran to the den and called out to Daniel, barely hoping for an answer. Daniel's voice came back calm and clear: "God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths." He emerged without a scratch. The men who had conspired against him were thrown into the den instead. And the lions crushed their bones before they hit the ground.

Josephus adds something remarkable about Daniel's legacy. He says Daniel built a great tower at the fortress of Ecbatana in Media, so beautifully constructed that it still appeared newly built centuries later. The Jewish community maintained it, and the high priests of the Babylonian diaspora were buried there. But Daniel's real monument was his prophecies. Josephus insists that Daniel prophesied not just vaguely but with specific timing, and that "by the forementioned predictions of Daniel, those men seem to me very much to err from the truth who determine that God exercises no providence over human affairs."

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Legends of the Jews 11:17Legends of the Jews

It comes from Legends of the Jews by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, drawing on ancient lore, and it involves prophets, angels, lions, and a very, very hungry group of them.

While all sorts of drama were unfolding in Babylon – An angel, a divine messenger, appeared to the prophet Habakkuk. Can you imagine the surprise?

The angel gives Habakkuk a rather unusual command: take the food he’s preparing for his field laborers and deliver it to Daniel in Babylon! Now, Habakkuk, understandably bewildered, asks the angel how he’s supposed to accomplish such a feat, given the vast distance. How could he possibly transport it so far?

Here's where it gets truly fantastical. The angel, without a word, seizes Habakkuk by his hair – yes, by his hair! – and in an instant, whisks him away to Babylon, setting him down right in front of Daniel. They share a meal, a bizarre picnic in the heart of this incredible situation, and then the angel promptly returns Habakkuk to his place in Palestine. One minute you're in Judea, the next you're dining with Daniel in Babylon, and then, poof, you're back home.

The next morning, King Darius, anxious to know Daniel's fate, rushes to the lion's den. He calls out Daniel's name, desperate for a response. But silence. Why? Because, as the story goes, Daniel, having spent the night praising God, was reciting the Shema. The Shema, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad, is the central prayer in Judaism, declaring God's oneness. Even in the face of mortal danger, Daniel's faith remained steadfast.

Hearing nothing, the king feared the worst, until he looked closer and saw that Daniel was indeed alive! Overjoyed, but also suspicious, the king summons Daniel's enemies, those who had plotted his downfall, to the pit. They suggest that perhaps the lions simply weren't hungry.

Big mistake.

King Darius, not buying it for a second, orders them to "test" the lions with their own bodies. The result? A gruesome spectacle. According to the tale, the hundred and twenty-two enemies of Daniel, along with their wives and children – a total of two hundred and forty-four people – were torn to shreds by fourteen hundred and sixty-four lions! Yes, you read that right.

Now, let's just pause for a moment and consider that image. It’s a stark, almost unbelievable contrast to the image of Daniel, peacefully reciting the Shema, protected by his faith.

What does this story, drawn from ancient Jewish lore, really tell us? Is it a literal account of historical events? Perhaps. More likely, it's a powerful parable about faith, divine intervention, and the consequences of malice. It reminds us that even in the darkest of times, faith can be a shield, and that actions, good or bad, have repercussions. It's a story that leaves you pondering the boundaries of reality, the power of belief, and the enduring strength of the human spirit, even when faced with a den full of very, very hungry lions.

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