Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
To look up a word in a dictionary, select the word with your mouse and press 'd' on your keyboard.
BEL AND THE DRAGON
Bel and the Dragon, consists of two stories which were added to the Greek
translation of The Book of Daniel. The first tells of Daniel's wisdom and
courage in revealing the falseness of the idol Bel, and the second describes
how he destroyed a dragon which was worshipped by the Babylonians.
Daniel's wisdom defeats the priests of Bel 1–22
Daniel kills the dragon 23–32
Daniel is rescued from the pit of lions 33–42
Daniel and the Priests of Bel
1 After the death of King Astyages,
Cyrus of Persia took over his
kingdom.
2 Daniel was one of King
Cyrus' closest companions, and the
king thought more highly of Daniel
than of any other of his advisers.
3 The Babylonians had an idol
named Bel. Each day the people had
to provide Bel with an offering of
twelve bushels of fine flour, forty
sheep, and fifty gallons of wine. note
4 King Cyrus believed that Bel was a
god, and each day he used to go and
worship it. But Daniel worshiped his
own God.
5 One day the king asked Daniel,
“Why don't you worship Bel?”
5 Daniel answered, “I do not worship
idols made with human hands. I
worship only the living God, who
created heaven and earth and is the
Lord of all mankind.”
6 “And don't you believe that our
god Bel is really alive?” asked the
king. “Haven't you seen how much
he eats and drinks every day?”
7 Daniel laughed and said, “Don't
be fooled, Your Majesty. This god
you call Bel is nothing more than
clay covered with bronze; it has never
eaten or drunk anything.”
8
9
10 At this the king became angry
and called in all seventy of the
priests of Bel. He said to them, “I
warn you that you will be put to
death, unless you can show me that
it is Bel who is eating these offerings.
If you prove to me that it is Bel,
then I will have Daniel put to death
for claiming that Bel is not a god.”
8
9
10 Daniel agreed to this proposal.
11 Then they all went with the king
into Bel's temple, where the priests
said to the king, “Your Majesty, we
will go out and let you place the food
on the table and prepare the wine.
When you leave, you may lock the
door behind you and seal it with the
royal seal.
12 In the morning when
you return, if you find that Bel has
not eaten everything, you can put us
to death. But if he has, Daniel will
die for making false accusations
against us.”
13 But the priests were not worried,
because they had made a secret
entrance underneath a table in the
temple, so that they could go in every
night and eat the offerings.
14 When the priests had left, the
king set out the food for Bel. Then
Daniel ordered his servants to bring
some ashes and scatter them all over
the floor of the temple. No one except
the king saw them do this. After
that they all went out, locked the
door, sealed it with the royal seal,
and left.
15 That night, as usual, the priests
with their wives and children came
into the temple by the secret entrance
and ate all the food and drank
all the wine.
-- --
16 Early the next morning, the king
and Daniel went to the temple.
17 The king asked, “Have the seals
been broken, Daniel?”
17 “No, Your Majesty, they have not
been broken,” he replied.
18 As soon as the door was opened,
the king saw the empty table and
shouted, “You are great, O Bel! You
really are a god.”
19 But Daniel began to laugh and
said to the king, “Before you enter
the temple, look at the floor and tell
me whose footprints you see there.”
20 “I see the footprints of men,
women, and children,” said the king,
21 and he became so angry that he
had the priests and their families arrested
and brought to him. They
showed him the secret doors
through which they had come in
each night to eat the food placed on
the table.
22 So the king had the
priests put to death, and he gave Bel
to Daniel, who destroyed the idol
and tore down its temple.
Daniel Kills the Dragon
23 There was also a huge dragon
which the Babylonians worshiped.
24 One day the king said to Daniel,
“You can't tell me that this god is
not alive. So worship him!”
25 “I worship the Lord,” replied
Daniel. “He is the only living God.
26 And if Your Majesty will give me
permission, I will kill this dragon of
yours without using a sword or a
club.”
26 “You have my permission,” answered
the king.
27 So Daniel took some tar, some
fat, and some hair and boiled them
all together. He made cakes out of
the mixture and fed them to the
dragon. When the dragon ate them,
it swelled up and burst open. “That's
the kind of thing you Babylonians
worship,” said Daniel.
28 When the people of Babylon
heard what had happened, they
staged an angry demonstration
against the king. “The king has become
a Jew,” they shouted. “First he
destroyed Bel and slaughtered the
priests, and now he has killed our
dragon.”
29 They went to the king
and demanded that Daniel be
handed over to them. “If you refuse,”
they warned the king, “we
will put you and your family to
death.”
30 When the king saw that they
meant what they said, he was forced
to hand Daniel over to them.
31 The
men threw him into a pit of lions,
where they left him for six days.
32 There were seven lions in the pit,
and normally they were fed two men
and two sheep each day. But they
were given nothing to eat during
these six days, in order to make sure
that Daniel would be eaten. note
-- --
Daniel Is Rescued from the Pit of Lions
33 At that time the prophet Habakkuk
was in the land of Judah. He had
cooked a stew and crumbled bread
into it. He was carrying a bowl of it
to the men who were out in the fields
harvesting grain,
34 when an angel of
the Lord spoke to him, “Take the
food you are carrying and give it to
Daniel, who is in Babylon in a pit of
lions.”
35 Habakkuk answered, “Sir, I
have never been to Babylon, and I
don't know where the pit of lions is.”
36 So the angel grabbed the
prophet by the hair and took him to
Babylon with the speed of the wind. note
He set him down near the pit of
lions. note
37 Habakkuk called out, “Daniel!
Daniel! God has sent you some
food. Here, take it.”
38 When Daniel heard Habakkuk,
he prayed, “God, you did remember
me; you never abandon those who
love you.”
39 Then he got up and ate
the meal, and God's angel immediately
took Habakkuk home.
40 Seven days after Daniel had
been thrown to the lions, the king
went to the pit to mourn for him.
When he got there and looked in,
there sat Daniel.
41 The king shouted,
“O Lord, the God of Daniel, how
great you are. You alone are God.”
42 So he pulled Daniel out of the pit
and had the men who had tried to
kill Daniel thrown into it. And the
lions ate them immediately, while
the king watched.
-- --
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
|