Josippon

While Darius was sitting on the throne of his kingdom, he sent for Daniel, servant of God, to see his wisdom and to know his advice. They brought him before the king, and he examined him, tested him, and he knew twice as much as he had heard about him. He rejoiced in him and loved him and appointed him his counselor just as he had been to Darius previously.

One day Darius celebrated the holiday of Bel, god of Babylon. The king prepared the offering to sacrifice to Bel, god of Babylon. This was the customary offering: one bull and ten male rams and one hundred doves and seventy round loaves of bread of the king's table and ten pitchers of wine from his table. This was his daily ration.

When the day came, they arrayed the table before Bel, and the king said to Daniel: "I wish you believed in the splendor of Bel, our great god, who will eat the array of this table." Daniel answered the king: "Let not the king's heart be deceived by Bel, and let it not mislead you, for he is vanity, and there is no spirit in him, for he is the work of a craftsman, so how can he eat and how can he drink? Only his priests eat the array of his table; also, they eat his offering and his burnt offering. Now, if you listen to my advice and hand over his priests to me, I will expose their fraudulence by which they deceive you and your people to bow down to vanity and nothingness." And the king said: "All right, let it be according to thy word."

Daniel ordered that the entrances to Bel and his temple and its gates be blocked and its gates be shut, except for the gate through which the king and Daniel came. Then Daniel said: "Bring me the ash!" They brought it, and he spread the ash on the floor of the temple. But the priests did not know what Daniel had advised to do. When they finished doing this, the king left with Daniel by the gate through which they had entered with their servants. Closing the gate, the king sealed it with his ring and with Daniel's ring. They went to king's palace and spent the night there.

In the morning, the king sent for Daniel to see and know what Bel did. They went to the temple gate and found the seals that they had sealed. The king said to Daniel: "Is there any damage to the seals?" He replied: "No." He ordered to remove them, and opening the gate, they saw the table. And lo, everything that they had arrayed upon it had been eaten, from bread unto meat, and the wine had been drunk. When the king saw, he fell to the ground before Bel and said: "Bel, great is your name in the world. Who is like unto you in majesty among the gods of the nations?" And Daniel answered him, saying: "Let not the king speak thus, for Bel is mud and clay and copper; and he neither ate nor drank. Just look at the ash that we spread on the floor and around the altar and the table; see these footprints: whose are these if not the eaters at Bel's table?" The king looked and, behold, footsteps of men and women and youth and children.

The king sent for and seized the seventy priests who served Bel. The king swore unto them: "If you do not tell me the truth, you shall die!" They showed him the hidden entrances through which they came to Bel in the night and ate the array of his table. The king understood their cunning; he ordered that the temple of Bel be razed to the ground.

Also, in those days the Chaldeans had as a god a great dragon that lived in a cave. They used to prepare an offering for him, which they brought at night, to be thrown to the dragon. When the dragon smelled the odor of the fat and the sacrifice, it rejoiced to come out for the offering and opened its mouth, as was its custom. They threw it into its mouth, and the dragon swallowed it, whereupon it swelled up and turned to reenter the cave. The chiefs said to the king: "Could Daniel mock even this god, which is a living god, as he did to Bel and his priests, and stop his service? Why does he not challenge this god? For if he challenges him, Bel and his temple shall be avenged."

The king said to Daniel: "Listen, Daniel, and take heed, and I will speak to you! Will you use your wisdom against the dragon, the great and powerful god, to destroy him as you did to Bel, who was lifeless? He is a living god, strong and powerful. Who will face him to do him harm?" Daniel answered the king, saying: "Let not the king be deceived by him also, for he is an animal and may be subdued by the hand of man, for there is not in him the Spirit of God. Now, if you will permit me, my lord the king, this dragon too I will smite and kill it without sword or staff or weapon, for it is a reptile that swarms upon the earth. And God enjoined the fear of man upon every animal, swarming and moving creature, for he made man in God's image so that all shall fear him. And now, if it pleases you, give me leave to smite him and destroy him like one of the idols I had destroyed. Only do not let your chiefs harm me." The king said to him: "Go, do what you can." The chiefs were quite pleased at the king's command to Daniel to confront the dragon, for they said: "Now Daniel will be destroyed for he cannot stand before the dragon."

Daniel left the king and made for himself iron instruments like combs of flax and fixed them back-to-back so that their spikes were to the outside, honed and sharp all around. Then he wound around them all kinds of covering, fat and grease, all manner of fatty materials, and he also put a layer of sulfur and burned it until the spikes of the iron and the teeth disappeared and appeared as the offering the dragon was used to. Daniel threw it into the dragon's mouth. In its desire, the dragon hastened to swallow it, accepting it. When it entered its mouth and reached its belly, the fat and the grease melted from the iron spikes, and the sharp pronged points pierced the dragon's intestines. The dragon was weakened, its strength failed, and it died on the morrow.

Three days later, the Chaldeans and Babylonians came to seek the dragon for the regular offering, but he was not there. Only a stench rose from the cave. They broke into the cave, and behold, their god was dead, bloated, and stinking. The men were saddened; they were very angry with Daniel and said: "What has Daniel the Jew done to our two gods, destroying Bel and smiting the dragon? Now, if the king will hand him over to us, he shall be killed, and, if not, let it be known to the king that he shall not live." When the king heard that the masses conspired against him, he slew by sword their leaders and their chiefs, along with those who rose against Daniel.