After the wonderful deliverance of Daniel’s friends from the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar had issued an edict to all the nations of his kingdom forbidding them, on pain of death, from saying anything against the God of these Hebrews (ch. 3:29). In similar manner, in consequence of the miraculous preservation of Daniel in the den of lions, Darius gave out an edict commanding all the nations of his realm to fear and reverence Daniel’s God. We need not necessarily conclude from this that the king personally departed from the polytheism of the Medes. Darius acknowledged the God of Daniel as the living God, whose kingdom and dominion are everlasting, but it is not stated that he acknowledged Him as the only true God. See further on p. 751.