Daniel 6:24 Commentary and Bible Study

These were not ageing lions or tame lions or well-fed lions: they soon ate those thrown to them, and with great vigour. This is recorded so that we know they were real lions. Darius punishes those who sought to pervert justice. ‘Those men which accused Daniel’ – the Aramaic is ‘slandered Daniel’, literally ‘devoured Daniel’. The cruelty of what they had done is brought out by the word, and this is what drives the fierce judgment of the king. This verse troubles people. Do remember that this is not what God commanded; it is what Darius, the pagan king decides to do. ‘The king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel,’ – perhaps it was not the whole hundred and twenty, but the ringleaders would do; It was treason to kill the chief commissioner – ‘and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives.’ Of course if this had been Israel and a just death sentence had been pronounced upon such people, it would not have been carried out on their children or their wives (Ezekiel 18:20). This is in Babylon and this is under the Medo Persian rule. So don't blame the Bible that the children and the wives were killed; this is the action of a pagan king.