²⁰ and he said -- `The Jews agreed to request thee, that to-morrow to the sanhedrim thou mayest bring down Paul, as being about to enquire something more exactly concerning him;

¹⁴ who having come near to the chief priests and to the elders said, `With an anathema we did anathematize ourselves -- to taste nothing till we have killed Paul;

¹⁵ now, therefore, ye, signify ye to the chief captain, with the sanhedrim, that to-morrow he may bring him down unto you, as being about to know more exactly the things concerning him; and we, before his coming nigh, are ready to put him to death.'

² Vanity they speak each with his neighbour, Lip of flattery! With heart and heart they speak.

⁵ Then these men are saying, `We do not find against this Daniel any cause of complaint, except we have found `it' against him in the law of his God.'

⁶ Then these presidents and satraps have assembled near the king, and thus they are saying to him: `O king Darius, to the ages live!

⁷ Taken counsel have all the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects, and the satraps, the counsellors, and the governors, to establish a royal statute, and to strengthen an interdict, that any who seeketh a petition from any god and man until thirty days, save of thee, O king, is cast into a den of lions.

⁸ Now, O king, thou dost establish the interdict, and sign the writing, that it is not to be changed, as a law of Media and Persia, that doth not pass away.'

⁹ Therefore king Darius hath signed the writing and interdict.

¹⁰ And Daniel, when he hath known that the writing is signed, hath gone up to his house, and the window being opened for him, in his upper chamber, over-against Jerusalem, three times in a day he is kneeling on his knees, and praying, and confessing before his God, because that he was doing `it' before this.

¹¹ Then these men have assembled, and found Daniel praying and entreating grace before his God;

¹² then they have come near, yea, they are saying before the king concerning the king's interdict: `Hast thou not signed an interdict, that any man who seeketh from any god and man until thirty days, save of thee, O king, is cast into a den of lions?' Answered hath the king, and said, `The thing `is' certain as a law of Media and Persia, that doth not pass away.'

¹ And Paul having earnestly beheld the sanhedrim, said, `Men, brethren, I in all good conscience have lived to God unto this day;'