14:1Now Daniel was a table-companion of the king, and honoured above all his friends. 14:2There was also an idol among the Babylonians named Bel: and there were spent on it each day twelve artabas of fine flour, and forty sheep, and six amphoras of wine. 14:3The king too worshipped it, and went each day to adore it: but Daniel adored his own God. 14:3And the king said to him: "Why do you not adore Bel?" 14:4He, answering, said to him: "Because I do not worship idols made by hand, but the living God, who created heaven, and earth, and has power over all flesh." 14:5And the king said to him: "Does Bel not seem to you to be a living god?
14:5Or do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day?" 14:6And Daniel said, smiling: "Do not be mistaken, king: for this one is clay inside, and bronze outside, and he has never eaten." 14:7And the king, angered, called his priests, and said to them: "Unless you tell me who it is who eats these provisions, you will die. 14:8But if you show that Bel eats these things, Daniel will die, because he has blasphemed against Bel." 14:8And Daniel said to the king: "Let it be done according to your word." 14:9Now the priests of Bel were seventy, besides wives, and little ones, and sons. 14:9And the king came with Daniel into the temple of Bel.
14:10And the priests of Bel said: "Look, we are going outside: and you, king, set out the food, and mix the wine, and shut the door, and seal it with your ring: and when you have come in in the morning, unless you find everything eaten by Bel, we will die the death, or else Daniel, who has lied against us." 14:12But they made light of it, because they had made a hidden entrance under the table, and through it they were always going in, and devouring those things. 14:13So it happened, after they had gone out, the king set the food before Bel: Daniel gave orders to his servants, and they brought ashes, and he sifted them through the whole temple before the king: and going out they shut the door, and sealing it with the king's ring they went away.
14:14But the priests went in by night according to their custom, and their wives and sons, and they ate everything, and drank. 14:15And the king rose at first dawn, and Daniel with him. 14:16And the king said: "Are the seals safe, Daniel?" 14:16He answered: "Safe, king." 14:17And at once, when he had opened the door, the king, looking at the table, cried out with a great voice: "Great are you, Bel, and there is no guile at all with you." 14:18And Daniel laughed, and held the king back from going inside: and he said: "Look at the floor: consider whose footprints these are." 14:19And the king said: "I see the footprints of men, and women, and children."
14:19And the king was angry. 14:20Then he seized the priests, and their wives, and sons: and they showed him the hidden little doors through which they used to go in, and consume what was on the table. 14:21So the king slew them, and handed Bel over into the power of Daniel: who overturned it, and its temple. 14:22And there was a great dragon in that place, and the Babylonians worshipped it. 14:23And the king said to Daniel: "Look, now you cannot say that this is not a living god: adore it therefore." 14:24And Daniel said: "The Lord my God I adore, because he is the living God: but this is not a living god.
14:25But you, king, give me power, and I will kill the dragon without sword or club." 14:25And the king said: "I give it to you." 14:26So Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and boiled them together: and he made lumps, and put them into the dragon's mouth, and the dragon burst apart. 14:26And he said: "Look at what you were worshipping." 14:27When the Babylonians had heard this, they were greatly indignant: and gathered against the king, they said: "The king has become a Jew: he has destroyed Bel, killed the dragon, and slain the priests." 14:28And when they had come to the king, they said: "Hand Daniel over to us, otherwise we will kill you, and your house."
14:29So the king saw that they were pressing upon him violently: and, compelled by necessity, he handed Daniel over to them. 14:30They sent him into the pit of lions, and he was there for six days. 14:31Now in the pit there were seven lions, and two bodies were given to them every day, and two sheep: and at that time they were not given to them, so that they might devour Daniel. 14:32Now Habakkuk the prophet was in Judea, and he had cooked a stew, and had broken bread into a bowl: and he was going into the field to carry it to the reapers. 14:33And the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk: "Carry the lunch which you have to Babylon, to Daniel, who is in the pit of lions."
14:34And Habakkuk said: "Lord, Babylon I have not seen, and the pit I do not know." 14:35And the angel of the Lord took hold of him by the crown of his head, and carried him by the hair of his head, and set him down in Babylon above the pit, in the rush of his spirit. 14:36And Habakkuk cried out, saying: "Daniel, servant of God, take the lunch which God has sent you." 14:37And Daniel said: "You have remembered me, God, and you have not forsaken those who love you." 14:38And rising, Daniel ate. 14:38And the angel of the Lord at once restored Habakkuk to his own place. 14:39So the king came on the seventh day to mourn Daniel: and he came to the pit, and looked in, and behold, Daniel sitting in the middle of the lions.
14:40And the king cried out with a great voice, saying: "Great are you, Lord God of Daniel." 14:40And he drew him out of the pit of lions. 14:41But those who had been the cause of his ruin he put into the pit, and they were devoured in a moment before him. 14:42Then the king said: "Let all who dwell in the whole earth be in dread of the God of Daniel: because he is the saviour, doing signs and wonders on the earth: who has freed Daniel from the pit of lions."