1 Darius divided his kingdom into a hundred and twenty states and placed a governor in charge of each one.
2 In order to make sure that his government was run properly, Darius put three other officials in charge of the governors. One of these officials was Daniel.
3 And he did his work so much better than the other governors and officials that the king decided to let him govern the whole kingdom.
4 The other men tried to find something wrong with the way Daniel did his work for the king. But they could not accuse him of anything wrong, because he was honest and faithful and did everything he was supposed to do.
5 Finally, they said to one another, “We will never be able to bring any charge against Daniel, unless it has to do with his religion.”
6 They all went to the king and said:“Your Majesty, we hope you live for ever!
7 All of your officials, leaders, advisers, and governors agree that you should make a law forbidding anyone to pray to any god or human except you for the next thirty days. Everyone who disobeys this law must be thrown into a pit of lions.