¹⁹ If it pleases the king, let a royal ^[a]decree go out from him, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it will ^(A)not ^[b]be altered, that Vashti shall come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

⁸ You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, ^[a]as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring ^(A)no one can revoke.”

⁵ and said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the ^(A)letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.

²⁸ So Samuel said to him, ^(A)“The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.

^17 (A)Then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, ^(B)and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signets of his lords, that the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed.

⁸ Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the ^(A)law of the Medes and Persians, which ^[a]does not alter.” ⁹ Therefore King Darius signed the written decree.

Daniel in the Lions’ Den

¹⁰ Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open ^(B)toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees ^(C)three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

¹¹ Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. ^12 (D)And they went before the king, and spoke concerning the king’s decree: “Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any god or man within thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?”

The king answered and said, “The thing is true, ^(E)according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which ^[b]does not alter.”

¹³ So they answered and said before the king, “That Daniel, ^(F)who is ^[c]one of the captives from Judah, ^(G)does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”

¹⁴ And the king, when he heard these words, ^(H)was greatly displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he ^[d]labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. ¹⁵ Then these men ^[e]approached the king, and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is ^(I)the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed.”

⁹ If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”

²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the ^(A)wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

²¹ And the reply pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Memucan.