Daniel’s Success and Darius’s Decree (6:1-9):

Big Idea: God may allow those who remain faithful to him and his word to experience jealous opposition from unbelievers in a hostile environment.

Understanding the Text

Daniel 6:1–28 is woven into the book’s overall literary structure in two ways. First, it advances the narrative of chapters 1–6, in which the first four focus on Nebuchadnezzar (chaps. 1–2 with historical markers and 3–4 without) and the last two show the transition from Belshazzar of Babylon to Darius the Mede (chaps. 5–6). Second, it completes the second of three parallel pairs of chapters (3 and 6) in the book’s concentric, Aramaic center section (see the comparison of these two chapters in “The Text in Context” in the unit on 3:1–12). Taken alone, 6:1–28 reflects a concentric s…