Albert Barnes Commentary Daniel 6:16

"Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. [Now] the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee." — Daniel 6:16 (ASV)

Then the king commanded ... - See the note at (Daniel 6:7). Some recent discoveries among the ruins of Babylon have shown that the mode of punishment by throwing offenders against the laws to lions was actually practiced there. These discoveries can be classified among the numerous instances in which modern investigations have tended to confirm the statements in the Bible. Three interesting figures illustrating this fact may be seen in the Pictorial Bible, volume 3, page 232. The first of these figures, from a block of stone, was found at Babylon near the great mass of ruin that is supposed to mark the site of the grand western palace. It represents a lion standing over the body of a prostrate man, extended on a pedestal which measures nine feet in length by three in breadth.

The head has recently been knocked off; but when Mr. Rich saw it, the statue was in a perfect state, and he remarks that “the mouth had a circular aperture into which a man could introduce his fist.” The second figure is from an engraved gem, dug from the ruins of Babylon by Captain Mignan. It exhibits a man standing on two sphinxes and engaged with two fierce animals, possibly intended for lions.

The third figure is from a block of white marble found near the tomb of Daniel at Susa, and is thus described by Sir Robert Ker Porter in his Travels (volume 2, page 416): “It does not exceed ten inches in width and depth, measures twenty in length, and is hollow within, as if to receive some deposit. Three of its sides are cut in bas-relief, two of them with similar representations of a man apparently naked, except a sash round his waist, and a sort of cap on his head. His hands are bound behind him. The corner of the stone forms the neck of the figure, so that its head forms one of its ends. Two lions in sitting postures appear on either side at the top, each having a paw on the head of the man.” See Pictorial Bible, in loc.

Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God ... - What is stated here is in accordance with what is said in (Daniel 6:14), that the king earnestly sought to deliver Daniel from the punishment. He had entire confidence in him, and he expressed that to the last. Regarding the probability of whether Darius, a pagan, would attempt to comfort Daniel with the hope that he would be delivered, and would express the belief that this would be done by the God whom Daniel served and in whose cause he was about to be exposed to peril, it may be remarked:

1. It was a common thing among the pagans to believe in the interposition of the gods in favor of the righteous, and particularly in favor of their worshippers. See Homer, passim. Therefore, they called on them, committed themselves to them in battle and in peril, and sought their aid by sacrifices and prayers. No one can doubt that such a belief prevailed, and that the mind of Darius, in accordance with the prevalent custom, might have been under its influence.
2. Darius, undoubtedly, in accordance with the prevailing belief, regarded the God whom Daniel worshipped as a god, though not as exclusively the true God. He had the same kind of confidence in him that he had in any god worshipped by foreigners, and probably regarded him as the tutelary divinity of the land of Palestine and of the Hebrew people. Since he could consistently express this belief in reference to any foreign divinity, it is not improbable that he would do so in reference to the God worshipped by Daniel.
3. He had the utmost confidence both in the integrity and the piety of Daniel. Since he believed that the gods interposed in human affairs, and as he saw in Daniel an eminent instance of devotedness to his God, he did not doubt that in such a case it might be hoped that Daniel’s God would save him.