Daniel 6:9-12
Konteks6:9 So King Darius issued the written interdict.
6:10 When Daniel realized 1 that a written decree had been issued, he entered his home, where the windows 2 in his upper room opened toward Jerusalem. 3 Three 4 times daily he was 5 kneeling 6 and offering prayers and thanks to his God just as he had been accustomed to do previously. 6:11 Then those officials who had gone to the king 7 came by collusion and found Daniel praying and asking for help before his God. 6:12 So they approached the king and said to him, 8 “Did you not issue an edict to the effect that for the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human other than to you, O king, would be thrown into a den of lions?” The king replied, “That is correct, 9 according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.”
[6:10] 2 sn In later rabbinic thought this verse was sometimes cited as a proof text for the notion that one should pray only in a house with windows. See b. Berakhot 34b.
[6:10] 3 map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[6:10] 4 sn This is apparently the only specific mention in the OT of prayer being regularly offered three times a day. The practice was probably not unique to Daniel, however.
[6:10] 5 tc Read with several medieval Hebrew
[6:10] 6 tn Aram “kneeling on his knees” (so NASB).
[6:10] sn No specific posture for offering prayers is prescribed in the OT. Kneeling, as here, and standing were both practiced.
[6:11] 7 tn Aram “those men”; the referent (the administrative officials who had earlier approached the king about the edict) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[6:12] 8 tc The MT also has “about the edict of the king,” but this phrase is absent in the LXX and the Syriac. The present translation deletes the expression.
[6:12] tn Aram “before the king.”