Read the passage and its setting
Daniel 6:25-28, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Daniel 6:25-28
Darius Praises the Living God
The Main Point
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Context That Shapes This Passage
How does this passage relate?
Daniel 6:25-28In “Darius Praises the Living God,” the complete unit develops this passage-specific claim: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Why this relationship fits: The reviewed boundary states: 6:25-28 is one natural movement because darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign. The boundary changes after verse 28.
What following material clarifies it?
Daniel 7:1-8The chronology rewinds to Belshazzar and the genre pivots from third-person court tale to first-person apocalypse.
Why this relationship fits: Daniel 7:1 in Daniel 7:1-8 is the reviewed hinge that connects the two units.
Where does this sit in the whole book?
Daniel as a wholeThe final court decree summarizes God's superior kingdom and rescue, but its command remains imperial speech and the chronology prepares a deliberate narrative rewind. “Darius Praises the Living God” opens that larger movement. This completes the present movement before the next larger development: Chapter 7 turns back to Belshazzar's first year and shifts from third-person court tales to Daniel's first-person apocalyptic vision.
Why this relationship fits: 6:25-28 is one natural movement because darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign. The boundary changes after verse 28. The unit's reviewed main point is: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Follow the Tales and Visions
See why this section appears here and how the author's movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
The final court decree summarizes God's superior kingdom and rescue, but its command remains imperial speech and the chronology prepares a deliberate narrative rewind. “Darius Praises the Living God” opens that larger movement. This completes the present movement before the next larger development: Chapter 7 turns back to Belshazzar's first year and shifts from third-person court tales to Daniel's first-person apocalyptic vision.
Follow the Movement
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Why This Interpretation Fits
Fear and trembling
The king still commands religious posture; praise of rescue does not make coercion ideal.
Living God
The title contrasts the enduring God with rulers and laws that fail.
Narrative chronology
Chapter 7 returns to Belshazzar, so canonical order is thematic as well as chronological.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading Daniel 6:25-28 inside Daniel's complete literary and historical movement rules out these uses:
The decree does not authorize governments to compel religious fear.
Signs and wonders do not validate every ruler's theology.
Daniel's prosperity does not promise wealth or office to every faithful person.
Darius cannot be equated with Cyrus as a settled fact.
Context check: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
What Remains True Today
Stories of deliverance should direct attention beyond the beneficiary to the living source of justice and life, while coercive praise remains ethically limited. Daniel 6:25-28 keeps that truth tied to this claim: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Stories of deliverance should direct attention beyond the beneficiary to the living source of justice and life, while coercive praise remains ethically limited. Daniel 6:25-28 keeps that truth tied to this claim: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
How should this shape us today?
Share testimony without demanding that listeners perform your religious response under state or institutional pressure. In Daniel 6:25-28, respond specifically to this movement: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Teach It Back
Explain Daniel 6:25-28 in your own words. Include its movement, ancient horizon, one material uncertainty, and one use the context rules out.
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Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Fear and trembling
The king still commands religious posture; praise of rescue does not make coercion ideal.
Living God
The title contrasts the enduring God with rulers and laws that fail.
Narrative chronology
Chapter 7 returns to Belshazzar, so canonical order is thematic as well as chronological.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
tremble and fear
The decree's compulsory language remains a feature of imperial response.
How certain? probableliving God
The phrase emphasizes active enduring life against mute idols and dying kings.
How certain? probableCyrus the Persian
The ending distinguishes Cyrus as Persian within the book's own sequence.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Imperial setting and limits of reconstruction
The narrative places this movement within Babylonian, Median, or Persian royal power, but its court detail is literary evidence rather than a recoverable administrative archive. Exact office, custom, chronology, and compositional setting must be argued from this unit and comparative evidence rather than assumed.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV wording and material Hebrew-Aramaic alternatives
KJV wording is retained from the pinned corpus; material Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek-edition differences are identified without replacing the displayed text.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Daniel in Jewish Scripture and ancient textual traditions
Read this unit inside Daniel's exilic court setting and scriptural world before importing later apocalyptic systems.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Later reception with first-horizon controls
Later Jewish and Christian reception may illuminate the unit, but it does not erase its ancient Judean horizon or settle disputed symbols.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
Masoretic, Old Greek, Theodotion, and composition care
The Masoretic Hebrew-Aramaic text controls the pinned KJV coverage, while Old Greek and Theodotion remain material witnesses whose agreements and differences require passage-specific care.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The relation of Darius and Cyrus in verse 28 can be read as two rulers or, less likely, apposition. Historical identification remains unresolved.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
The unit places human power under divine judgment and care without licensing readers to claim Daniel's revelatory authority for themselves.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
This unit contributes to Daniel's movement from exile and court service through beastly empire, suffering, judgment, resurrection hope, and promised rest: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The decree does not authorize governments to compel religious fear.
Daniel's memorable stories, numbers, and symbols can feel easier to imitate or decode than to interpret within their literary, historical, and ethical setting.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Stories of deliverance should direct attention beyond the beneficiary to the living source of justice and life, while coercive praise remains ethically limited. Daniel 6:25-28 keeps that truth tied to this claim: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Signs and wonders do not validate every ruler's theology.
Daniel's memorable stories, numbers, and symbols can feel easier to imitate or decode than to interpret within their literary, historical, and ethical setting.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Stories of deliverance should direct attention beyond the beneficiary to the living source of justice and life, while coercive praise remains ethically limited. Daniel 6:25-28 keeps that truth tied to this claim: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Daniel's prosperity does not promise wealth or office to every faithful person.
Daniel's memorable stories, numbers, and symbols can feel easier to imitate or decode than to interpret within their literary, historical, and ethical setting.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Stories of deliverance should direct attention beyond the beneficiary to the living source of justice and life, while coercive praise remains ethically limited. Daniel 6:25-28 keeps that truth tied to this claim: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Darius cannot be equated with Cyrus as a settled fact.
Daniel's memorable stories, numbers, and symbols can feel easier to imitate or decode than to interpret within their literary, historical, and ethical setting.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Stories of deliverance should direct attention beyond the beneficiary to the living source of justice and life, while coercive praise remains ethically limited. Daniel 6:25-28 keeps that truth tied to this claim: Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Darius commands fear before Daniel's living God, praises rescue, and the narrator carries Daniel's service into Cyrus's reign.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Daniel 6:25-28, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew-Aramaic wording, morphology, language boundary, names, repeated roots, clauses, and lexical controls.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Dan.xml, 6:25-28; Hebrew 1:1–2:4a and 8:1–12:13, Aramaic 2:4b–7:28
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew-Aramaic, textual, historical, translation, chronology, angelic-language, and duration notes.
NET Bible Daniel PDF, printed pp. 1655–1657, translation and translator notes on 6:25-28
Supports: Bilingual form, genres, composition, imperial settings, Antiochus IV, four kingdoms, seventy weeks, resurrection, and major critical alternatives.
P. R. Davies, 'Daniel,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 563–571; chapter-level discussion applied to 6:25-28
Supports: Masoretic, Old Greek, and Theodotion comparison; philology; court-tale and Daniel 7 textual stages; and formation arguments.
Suchard, Aramaic Daniel, pp. 84–95; textual reconstruction and formation discussion applied to 6:25-28
Supports: Two major Greek editions, substantial chapters 4–6 differences, numbering, wording, order, and additions outside the pinned KJV mapping.
McLay, NETS Daniel, introduction printed pp. 991–994 and parallel Old Greek/Theodotion translation pp. 995–1025; 6:25-28
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Daniel 6:25-28, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew aramaic text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Daniel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew-Aramaic wording, morphology, language boundary, names, repeated roots, clauses, and lexical controls.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Dan.xml, 6:25-28; Hebrew 1:1–2:4a and 8:1–12:13, Aramaic 2:4b–7:28
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Daniel with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew-Aramaic, textual, historical, translation, chronology, angelic-language, and duration notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Daniel PDF, printed pp. 1655–1657, translation and translator notes on 6:25-28
Open source ↗scholarly commentary article
Daniel
Philip R. Davies
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001
Supports: Bilingual form, genres, composition, imperial settings, Antiochus IV, four kingdoms, seventy weeks, resurrection, and major critical alternatives.
Exact location: P. R. Davies, 'Daniel,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 563–571; chapter-level discussion applied to 6:25-28
Open source ↗open access scholarly monograph
Aramaic Daniel: A Textual Reconstruction of Chapters 1-7
Benjamin D. Suchard
Brill, Studia Semitica Neerlandica 73, 2022
Supports: Masoretic, Old Greek, and Theodotion comparison; philology; court-tale and Daniel 7 textual stages; and formation arguments.
Exact location: Suchard, Aramaic Daniel, pp. 84–95; textual reconstruction and formation discussion applied to 6:25-28
Open source ↗greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Daniel
R. Timothy McLay
Oxford University Press for the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 2009, electronic corrections through 2014
Supports: Two major Greek editions, substantial chapters 4–6 differences, numbering, wording, order, and additions outside the pinned KJV mapping.
Exact location: McLay, NETS Daniel, introduction printed pp. 991–994 and parallel Old Greek/Theodotion translation pp. 995–1025; 6:25-28
Open source ↗