PERES; your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."

Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed."

Then they came near, and spoke before the king concerning the king's decree. "Haven't you signed a decree, that every man who shall make petition to any god or man within thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?" The king answered, "The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed."

Then these men assembled together to the king, and said to the king, "Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians, that no decree nor statute which the king establishes may be changed."

"And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to support and strengthen him.