Daniel 6.7 [6.8]-Daniel's Fellow Supervisors and Satraps Present a Proposal to Darius to Issue a Decree For the Purpose of Executing Daniel
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday February 21, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 6:7 (6:8)-Daniel’s Fellow Supervisors and Satraps Present a Proposal to Darius to Issue a Decree For the Purpose of Executing Daniel
Lesson # 178
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 5:31.
Daniel 5:31 (6:1) Now, Darius the Mede received the kingdom at sixty-two years of age. 2 It was considered a good idea by Darius to establish one hundred twenty satraps over the kingdom in order that they would be in authority over the entire kingdom 3 and in addition, out from, over them, three supervisors, of whom, Daniel was one of them in order that these satraps would exist in the state of having to give an account to them so that the king would never be able to suffer loss. 4 Then this Daniel was distinguishing himself above the supervisors as well as satraps because an extraordinary spirit was in him. Consequently, the king intended to establish him over the entire kingdom. 5 as a result, the supervisors as well as the satraps were repeatedly attempting to find a pretext against Daniel with regards to governmental affairs. However, repeatedly, they were totally unable to find any pretext in the form of corruption because he was trustworthy. Indeed, no negligence in the form of corruption was found against him. 6 Therefore, these men concluded, “We will never be able to cause a pretext to be found against this Daniel unless we cause it be found in connection with the law originating from his God.” 7 Consequently, these supervisors as well as the satraps conspired together to the detriment of the king and said the following to the king, “King Darius, live forever! (My translation)
Daniel 6:7 “All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den.” (NASB95)
“Commissioners” is the noun sā·rǎḵ (סָרַךְ) (saw-rate´), which refers to an individual who would be in charge of the one hundred twenty satraps and would hold them accountable.
“Prefects” is the noun seḡǎn means “senior officials” is referring to the supervisors describing them as “senior officials” in relation to the satraps.
“Satraps” is the noun ʾǎḥǎš∙dǎr∙pǎn which refers to the one hundred twenty selected by Darius the Mede to serve as governors of certain types of provinces.
“High officials” is the noun hǎd∙dā∙ḇǎr refers to the satraps and describes them as “royal officials” who helped Darius administrate the Babylonian kingdom.
“Governors” is the noun pě∙ḥā(h) which refers to the satraps but from the perspective that they were governors in the various provinces of the Babylonian kingdom.
“All” is the noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), which is used in a distributive sense meaning that “each and every one” of the supervisors and satraps were conspiring against Daniel indicating an enormous government conspiracy against Daniel.
“Have consulted together” is the verb yeʿǎṭ (יְעַט) (yeh-at´), which means “to agree together” indicating that these individuals told Darius that they “had agreed together” or “had come to an agreement.”
“That the king should establish” is composed of the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh) “that,” which is prefixed to the paʿʿel (Hebrew: piel) active infinitive construct form of the verb qûm (קוּם) (koom), “should establish” and the masculine singular form of the noun mě∙lěḵ (מֶלֶךְ) (meh´-lek), “the king.”
The verb qûm means “to issue” a binding decree and expresses the act of publishing officially a binding decree throughout the Babylonian kingdom.
The infinitive construct form of the verb is an infinitive construct of obligation indicating something that should or must be done and thus denotes that the supervisors and satraps are telling Darius that he “should issue” a decree and interdict to be enforced.
“A statute” is the masculine singular construct form of the noun qeyām (קְיָם) (keh-yawm´), which means “an edict” referring to a proclamation issued having the force of law.
This word does not mean “a statute” which refers to a law enacted by Darius which is intended to be permanent.
This edict or decree involves prohibiting anyone in the kingdom from praying to their god and any man for thirty days.
Therefore, the noun qeyām refers to a proclamation issued having the force of law, which would prohibit anyone in the kingdom from praying to their god and any man for thirty days.
“And enforce an injunction” explains in greater detail what Daniel’s fellow supervisors and satraps want the edict to consist of.
“Enforce” is composed of the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh) which is not translated and prefixed this time to the paʿʿel (Hebrew: piel) active infinitive construct form of the verb teqip̄ (תְּקִף) (tek-afe´), which means “to enforce.”
It refers to enforcing the interdict or injunction prohibiting anyone in the Babylonian kingdom from praying to their god or any man during a thirty day period in order to honor Darius.
The infinitive construct form of the verb is an infinitive construct of obligation indicating something that should or must be done and denotes that the supervisors and satraps are telling Darius that he should issue a decree, specifically an interdict which “should be enforced.”
“Injunction” is the noun ʾěsār (אֱסָר) (es-awr´), which refers to a law with sanctions, a legally binding prohibition, either written or spoken and here it refers to Darius issuing in written and verbal form a law prohibiting anyone in the kingdom from praying to their god or any man during a thirty day period.
“That anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den” is a purpose clause meaning that it presents the purpose of Darius the Mede issuing an edict, specifically an interdict which should be enforced.
It is speaking of an unidentified individual in Darius’ kingdom who refuses to comply with the injunction prohibiting prayer to one’s god or any man during a thirty day period.
“Shall be cast” is the verb remā(h) (רְמָה) (rem-aw´), which means “to be deposited unceremoniously” into the midst of a lion’s den or pit.
Daniel 6:7 (6:8) “Each and every one of the supervisors over the kingdom, namely the senior officials well as the satraps, that is the royal officials, in other words the governors are in agreement that the king should issue an edict. Specifically, an interdict, which should be enforced in order that whoever makes a request from any god or human being during a thirty day period except from you, O king, must be unceremoniously deposited into a lion’s den.” (My translation)
Daniel 6:7 (6:8) records Daniel’s fellow supervisors and satraps making a proposal to Darius, which appears on the surface to be an attempt by the conspirators to deify the king and to unify the Middle and Near East.
However, the real purpose of this proposal is to kill Daniel since out of jealousy and envy toward Daniel the conspirators have presented this proposal to Darius.
It is understandable as to why they would want to prohibit praying to any god but it seems unusual they would prohibit someone from making a request from any human being.
However, they are speaking of prohibiting someone in the kingdom making a request of any human king who might deify himself.
The thirty day period was settled upon by the conspirators since this they considered would be a sufficient amount of time to catch Daniel failing to comply with the decree.
So the proposal of the supervisors and satraps that Darius establish this edict was an appeal to the king’s vanity and arrogance in recognizing in him divine powers and ascribing worship to him and was designed to deify Darius.
The king was influenced by the claim of deity that many of the Persian kings made.
Worshipping Darius as a god would not be unusual in the sixty century B.C. since the Pharaohs of Egypt were worshipped as such from times immemorial.
The Caesars of Rome, the Herods, the Seleucids and Ptolemies were called gods and worshipped as such.
Fascinatingly, Darius does notice Daniel even though he was conspicuously absent, which the king should have noticed.
The proposal to deify him caused him to overlook Daniel’s conspicuous absence.
In fact, the king never consults Daniel and Daniel was going to be placed by him in authority over these individuals who were making this proposal.
Some argue that the king would have no reason to suspect the other supervisors and satraps plotting Daniel’s death but in the ancient world conspiracies like these among the satraps was not uncommon.
So it was either a case of sheer stupidity on Darius’ part to not ask about Daniel’s whereabouts or ask Daniel his opinion on the matter or the king was simply inexperienced with regards to court intrigue.
This evil proposal presented to Darius by Daniel’s fellow supervisors and satraps reveals that not all evil people murder people with guns but rather that some evil people use laws to carry out their wicked plans.
History has demonstrated that terrible and evil laws have been passed by men with evil intentions.
They let others enforce their laws and thus have others carry out their dirty work.