Daniel 6:11

Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Daniel 6:11-12. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying — Their design being laid, they watched narrowly, and found, as they expected, Daniel upon his knees, making supplication, not to Darius, but to Jehovah, in flat opposition to the law signed by the king, and not to be violated without suffering its penalty. Then they came near, and spake before the king — Having now got what they wanted, an unanswerable plea against Daniel, they came with open mouth, and urged that the king’s law was broken, a law which he had solemnly signed and ratified, and so rendered unalterable; pleading that the king’s authority, and the honour of the nation, lay at stake. The king answered, The thing is true, &c. — He owned such a law had been made, and signed by him, and that therefore it must be put in force.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:11-17 It is no new thing for what is done faithfully, in conscience toward God, to be misrepresented as done obstinately, and in contempt of the civil powers. Through want of due thought, we often do that which afterwards, like Darius, we see cause a thousand times to wish undone again. Daniel, that venerable man, is brought as the vilest of malefactors, and is thrown into the den of lions, to be devoured, only for worshipping his God. No doubt the placing the stone was ordered by the providence of God, that the miracle of Daniel's deliverance might appear more plain; and the king sealed it with his own signet, probably lest Daniel's enemies should kill him. Let us commit our lives and souls unto God, in well-doing. We cannot place full confidence even in men whom we faithfully serve; but believers may, in all cases, be sure of the Divine favour and consolation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Then these men assembled ... - Evidently with a design of finding him at his devotions.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. assembled—as in Da 6:6, "assembled" or "ran hastily," so as to come upon Daniel suddenly and detect him in the act.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This design being laid by them, they watched narrowly, and it took; they came and found all open. He feared not to be found praying, he prevented their breaking open doors, and rushing in, or making proof; he owned all, and freely offered himself.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then these men assembled,.... Gathered together, and went in a body to Daniel's house; knowing his times of prayer, and where, and in what manner, he used to pray, to see if they could find him at it as aforetime; that so they might have to accuse him with it. Saadiah says, they found a girl, and asked her what Daniel was doing? she told him that Daniel was on his knees, praying to his God in his chamber; immediately they went, and found as she had said:

and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God; they went into his house, and up into his chamber, the doors not being locked, pretending perhaps business with him, and saw him at his devotions; so that they were able, upon their own knowledge, to bring in an accusation against him for breach of the king's law, and prove it.

Geneva Study Bible

Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. assembled] came thronging (Daniel 6:6),—flocking tumultuously about Daniel’s house.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. The Septuagint reading is very different, "And they watched Daniel, and found him praying three times a day every day." It is difficult to decide which is the preferable reading, and almost as difficult to deduce the one reading from the other. Thcodotion has a reading akin to that of the Septuagint, "Then those men watched, and found Daniel praying, and. making entreaty to his God." This is akin to the Septuagint at the beginning, but is close to the Massoretic at the end. The Peshitta is in close agreement with Theodotion. It seems more in accordance with the plan of these presidents that they should not, as the Massoretic text asserts, rush tumultuously into the house of Daniel, but rather, as the three versions represent them doing, setting a watch, and then, when information reached them of Daniel's habits, acting accordingly. Nothing in the narrative makes it probable that there was a general assembling of the governors against Daniel; it was the action of his colleagues in the presidency. Daniel 6:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When Daniel's enemies had secretly observed him prayer, they rushed into the house while he was offering his supplications, that they might apprehend him in the very act and be able to bring him to punishment. That the act of watching him is not particularly mentioned, since it is to be gathered from the context, does not make the fact itself doubtful, if one only does not arbitrarily, with Hitzig, introduce all kinds of pretences for throwing suspicion on the narrative; as e.g., by inquiring whether the 122 satraps had placed themselves in ambush; why Daniel had not guarded against them, had not shut himself in; and the lie. הרגּישׁ, as Daniel 6:7, to rush forward, to press in eagerly, here "shows the greatness of the zeal with which they performed their business" (Kran.).

Daniel 6:13-14 (Daniel 6:12-13)

They immediately accused him to the king. Reminding the king of the promulgation of the prohibition, they showed him that Daniel, one of the captive Jews, had not regarded the king's command, but had continued during the thirty days to pray to his own God, and thus had violated the law. In this accusation they laid against Daniel, we observe that his accusers do not describe him as one standing in office near to the king, but only as one of a foreign nation, one of the Jewish exiles in Babylon, in order that they may thereby bring his conduct under the suspicion of being a political act of rebellion against the royal authority.