When Herod saw that the Magi tricked him, he was exceedingly angry and sent orders to kill all male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.
Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the facial image was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.
The king answered the Chaldeans, “This command from me is firm: If you don’t make known to me both the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut in pieces, and your houses will be made a dunghill.
But I tell y’all that everyone who is enraged with their sibling will be subject to judgment. Whoever calls their sibling, ‘You good-for-nothing!’ will be in danger of the council. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said this to him: “Don’t destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will show to the king the interpretation.”
Because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. He killed whom he wanted to, and he kept alive whom he wanted to. He raised up whom he wanted to, and he put down whom he wanted to.