⁷ All the presidents of the kingdom, the deputies and the satraps, the counsellors and the governors, have consulted together ^[a]to establish a royal statute, and to make a strong interdict, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. ⁸ Now, O king, establish the interdict, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which ^[b]altereth not. ⁹ Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the interdict.