‘Daniel’s Answer to the King’ by Briton Rivière, in the Manchester Art Gallery. From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.
KING Nebuchadnezzar’s toadying counsellors came to him, and said that they wanted him to issue a decree. For thirty days no one (it should say) may appeal to any god except the King himself.
But Daniel carried on his daily prayers to the God of Israel.
The foolish king, who rather liked Daniel and would have spared him, was forced by his counsellors to condemn him to the proper punishment: to spend a night, sealed by a great stone, in a den of lions.
After telling Daniel that he sincerely hoped that Israel’s God would deliver him, the king left to pass a guilt-ridden night, robbed of sleep.
Early in the morning, the king went to the lions’ den and called out for Daniel. And Daniel answered cheerfully from within, that he was quite unharmed.
As for the king’s ministers, they were assigned the very fate they had intended for Daniel.
Précis
Daniel refused to comply with King Nebuchadnezzar’s decree that all prayers should be directed to the king himself, and was condemned to a night in a den of lions. The king was secretly pleased to see Daniel survive unharmed; but the courtiers who had proposed the decree were given a taste of their own medicine. (55 / 60 words)
