1. When King Astyages was buried with his ancestors, Cyrus the Persian took over his kingdom.
2. Daniel was a companion of the king, honored above all Cyrus’ political advisors.
3. Now the Babylonians had an idol named Bel. Each day they supplied it with twelve bushels of fine flour, forty sheep, and sixty gallons of wine.
4. The king honored Bel and worshipped it daily, but Daniel worshipped his own God. So the king said to him, "Why don’t you worship Bel?"
5. He said, "I don’t honor idols made by humans, rather the living God who created heaven and earth and has authority over all living things."
6. The king said to him, "You believe Bel is a living god, don’t you? Haven’t you seen how much he eats and drinks every day?"
7. Daniel laughed and said, "Don’t be taken in, Your Majesty! This is clay on the inside and brass on the outside. It hasn’t eaten or drunk anything, ever!"
8. Furious, the king called for his priests. He said to them,"If you don’t tell me who eats these provisions, you die! But if you can prove that Bel eats them, Daniel will die for insulting Bel."
9. Daniel said to the king,"That’s fair enough."Now Bel had seventy priests plus their wives and children.
10. The king went with Daniel to Bel’s temple.
11. Bel’s priests said, "We’re going outside now. Your Majesty, you set out the food and mix the wine. Lock the door and seal it with your own seal. Early tomorrow, if you don’t find that Bel has eaten everything, you can kill us. Otherwise, kill Daniel for lying about us!" (
12. The priests weren’t worried because they had made a hidden entrance under the table, which they regularly used to enter to eat everything.)
13. When the priests went out, the king set out Bel’s food.