God’s Word for You
Daniel 6:15-16 Into the lions’ den
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, November 3, 2025
15 Then these men came once again as a group to the king, and said to him, “You know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that any decree or command which the king establishes cannot be changed.” 16 So the king gave the order, and Daniel was brought and thrown into the lions’ den. But the king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”
Just as they did before, “these men,” which means the small group of conspirators, came “as a group” as they did when they burst in on Daniel praying in his upper chamber (verse 11), this time bursting in, as it were, on the king as he struggled all day long with this problem. There is no mention in the decree about the convicted man being thrown into the lions’ den on the very same day, but this passage is a perfect example of the concept of swift justice in the ancient world. Once a man was sentenced, justice meant that he had to be punished the same day, or (if a long sentence) carried off to begin his punishment on the same day. But for a capital crime, it meant execution, presumably before the sun went down.
The king shows his displeasure with the conspirators and his lasting good favor with Daniel, as well as his feeling for Daniel’s God, by saying, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” (verse 16). What should we make of the king’s feeling? Admiration? “Remember that Darius spoke as a heathen,” Professor Jeske writes. “According to his belief, the gods often intervened in the affairs of men. The king tried to assure Daniel that if any god would intervene for a worthy man, Daniel’s god surely would for him. How unusual that a heathen king would attempt to comfort a man he had just sentenced to death!”
Our attention turns naturally to questions about the lions’ den. The word in Aramaic is “gob / gov,” either a pit or a cistern. There is a very similar word in Hebrew used for a cistern (Isaiah 30:14; Ezekiel 47:11). A different word is used when Banaiah, one of David’s mighty men, went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion (2 Samuel 23:20).
These are the things we can say about this lions’ den.
1, It held real, living and ravenous lions.
2, Historically, we know that this was a practice of ancient kings of Babylon and Persia to contain wild animals including lions, leopards, and bears, in enclosed parks, not unlike modern zoos. Perhaps Solomon had something like this. He imported apes and baboons from Africa (2 Chronicles 9:21). The pit or den of lions in our text does not fit this description.
3, The Aramaic term means “pit.” Jerome wrote that the term ‘pit’ implies “a really deep depression, or dry cistern, in which the lions were fed.” This suggests a steep, deep hole in the ground.
4, The condemned were not sent in through a door, but thrown down from above (verse 7).
5, There was a “mouth” of the den (verse 17). A visitor could call out to a condemned man there.
6, Daniel was not released through a door, but by being lifted up and out of the den (verse 23).
7, The mouth or door of the den was shut with a stone being rolled in place (verse 17). It seems unlikely, improbable and impracticable that this would have been over an upper opening, unless that opening were rather small. For fetching water, a small opening to a cistern would be logical. Larger cisterns in the Middle East were not covered in this way, but had much bigger openings that might be covered with a canvas, or under a tent, but usually under a larger more permanent structure like a big barn.
Based on these points, we come to agree with several commentators who think that this lions’ den had two entrances. First, the open top from which one could witness what went on below. Prisoners were thrown down from there. Second, there was another access point, an opening, accessed from a lower level or ravine, which could be opened to admit new animals or remove dead or wounded ones, and perhaps to provide water for the creatures. It was perhaps this opening that was covered with a stone and sealed.
The use of lions was a deterrent. Lions, like the later Roman crucifixion, was a potentially terrifying death, painful in the extreme. Anyone who has ever been scratched by an animal, even a dog, cat, fox, bird or bullhead, knows how sharp and painful it can be. Multiplied hundreds of times to allow for the massive size, weight, and unstoppable ferocity of a lion, and the experience becomes unthinkable, for we can all imagine “lions wanting food that rush upon us as their hungry prey.”
Christ’s suffering on the cross was foremost about the shame of being crucified, but also the pain of the nails and of being immobilized until dead, and suffering the taunts of the soldiers, of passers-by, and of his enemies. “They will tear me like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me” (Psalm 7:2). “They are like a lion hungry for prey, like a great lion crouching in cover” (Psalm 17:12). And again, “Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked man ruling over a helpless people” (Proverbs 28:15). In these ways, Daniel’s descent into the lions’ den is a kind of foreshadowing of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. The intention of the ones who did this was to inflict terrible death and pain. But just as Daniel would ultimately suffer no hurt from this punishment, so also Christ rose from the dead. And in another sense, just as Christ spared Daniel from this terrible fate, so also he has spared us from the burden of suffering forever in the pit of hell. For he took our suffering away from us and took it all upon himself, so that we will fall under the king’s parting words: “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” Through Christ, it will indeed be so. This is most certainly true.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.