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Verse

Daniel 6:11

ESV Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God.
NIV Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.
NASB Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel offering a prayer and imploring favor before his God.
CSB Then these men went as a group and found Daniel petitioning and imploring his God.
NLT Then the officials went together to Daniel’s house and found him praying and asking for God’s help.
KJV Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.

What does Daniel 6:11 mean?

When Darius planned to make Daniel an even more powerful official over Babylon (Daniel 6:1–3), jealous rivals schemed to use Daniel's faith against him (Daniel 6:4–5). They conspired to trick Darius into signing an irrevocable law banning prayer, knowing Daniel would disobey out of loyalty to his God (Daniel 6:6–9). As expected, Daniel chose faithful obedience to God over fear of other men (Daniel 6:10; Acts 5:29). The conspirators converged on Daniel's house and found him praying. Since he did this publicly, and just as he'd always done, it was not difficult to catch him in the act of breaking Darius's new law.

The men here are said to have "come by agreement," using the same phrasing as the way they approached Darius with a proposal for the law (Daniel 6:6). They can see Daniel praying, possibly by barging into his home or waiting in the street outside his window. This suggests a smaller group of conspirators, rather than the entire group of 122 satraps and overseers.

Scripture mentions that Daniel read the book of Jeremiah (Daniel 9:2). That prophecy was written as men like Daniel were being captured and deported into Babylon (Daniel 1:1–7). Daniel's faithfulness here suggests trust in God's promise in Jeremiah 29:12–14: "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you." Jeremiah had included this promise in a letter he had written to those who would survive the exile (Jeremiah 29:1). Praying "toward" the temple in Jerusalem became a means of exiled Jews claiming the promise of forgiveness and became a common practice afterwards (2 Chronicles 6:36–39).
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