Exile · c. 600 BC
Chapter 3
Susanna
The Greek parts of Daniel are in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles; most Protestant Bibles leave them out or print them apart as the Apocrypha.
She, weeping, looked up toward heaven; for her heart trusted in the Lord.
For parents
In this chapter two elders, judges in Babylon, desire a married woman, Susanna, and threaten to testify that a young man was with her unless she sleeps with them; when she refuses, they accuse her falsely, and she is condemned to die (Greek Daniel 13:8–41). Daniel says they had frightened other women into giving in to them (13:57), and at the end the two elders are put to death under the law of Moses (13:61–62). It is told softly and honestly, with no detail; parents may want to read it first, or read it together.
In there lived a man named . He married a woman named , the daughter of . She was very beautiful, and she . Her parents also did what was right, and they had taught their daughter the law of .
Joakim was a very rich man, and he had a beautiful garden next to his house. The Jews often came to him, because he was more respected than anyone else.
That same year two of the people’s were made judges. The Lord had spoken about men like these. He had said that wickedness came out of Babylon from elders who were judges, men who were supposed to govern the people.
These two were often at Joakim’s house, and anyone who had a lawsuit came to them.
At noon, when the people had gone away, Susanna used to go into her husband’s garden to walk.
The two elders saw her going in and walking there every day, and they burned with desire for her. They twisted their own thinking and turned their eyes away, so that they would not look up to heaven or remember what is right.
Both of them ached with desire for her, but neither one dared to let the other see how he was suffering. They were ashamed to admit their desire, and what they wanted to do with her. Still, day after day, they watched eagerly for a sight of her.
Then one of them said to the other, “Let’s go home now. It’s time to eat.”
So they went out and went their separate ways. But each of them turned back, and they met in the same place. When they asked each other why, they both admitted their desire. Then together they set a time when they might find her alone.
One day, while they were waiting for their chance, Susanna went into the garden as usual with only two maids. It was hot, and she wanted to bathe in the garden. There was nobody else there, only the two elders, hiding and watching her.
“Bring me olive oil and ointment,” she told her maids, “and shut the garden doors, so I can have my bath.”
They did as she asked. They shut the garden doors and left through the side doors to fetch what she wanted. They didn’t see the elders, because the elders were hidden.
As soon as the maids had gone, the two elders stood up and ran to her. “Look,” they said, “the garden doors are shut. Nobody can see us, and we are in love with you. So give in to us, and sleep with us. If you won’t, we will testify against you. We will say that a young man was with you, and that this is why you sent your maids away.”
Susanna sighed. “I’m trapped,” she said. “If I do this, it will be my death. If I don’t, I can’t get away from you. But it is better for me to refuse and fall into your power than to sin in the Lord’s sight.”
Then Susanna cried out at the top of her voice, and the two elders shouted too, accusing her. One of them ran and opened the garden doors.
When the household servants heard the cries in the garden, they rushed in through the side door to see what had happened to her. But when they heard what the elders said, the servants were deeply ashamed, because nobody had ever said such a thing about Susanna before.
The next day, when the people came together at Joakim’s house, the two elders came too, full of their wicked plan to have Susanna put to death. In front of the people they said, “Send for Susanna, Helkias’s daughter, Joakim’s wife.” So they sent for Susanna, and she came with her father and mother, her children and all her relatives.
Susanna was a very delicate woman, and beautiful to look at. She was wearing a veil, and these wicked men ordered it taken off, so that they could gaze at her beauty as much as they wanted. So her friends and everyone who saw her wept.
Then the two elders stood up in the middle of the people and laid their hands on her head. She wept and looked up toward heaven, because her heart trusted in the Lord.
“We were walking in the garden by ourselves,” the elders said, “when this woman came in with two maids. She shut the garden doors and sent the maids away. Then a young man who had been hiding there came to her and slept with her.
“From a corner of the garden we saw this wickedness, and we ran to them. We saw them together, but we couldn’t hold on to the man, because he was stronger than we were. He opened the doors and leaped out. But we caught this woman and asked her who the young man was, and she wouldn’t tell us. This is our testimony.”
The assembly believed them, since they were elders and judges of the people. So they condemned her to death.
Then Susanna cried out in a loud voice, “Everlasting God, you know what is hidden, and you know everything before it happens. You know that they have lied about me. And now I must die, even though I have never done any of the things they have wickedly made up about me.”
The Lord heard her. As she was being led away to be put to death, God awakened the holy spirit of a young boy named .
He shouted out, “I am innocent of this woman’s death!”
All the people turned toward him. “What do you mean by that?” they asked.
Daniel stood in the middle of them. “Are you all such fools, you people of ?” he said. “Without asking any questions, without finding out the truth, you have condemned a daughter of Israel! Go back to the place of judgment, because these men have lied about her.”
So all the people turned back in a hurry. And the elders said to him, “Come, sit down with us and explain it to us, since God has given you the honor of an elder.”
Then Daniel said to them, “Put them far apart from each other, and I will question them.”
When they had been separated, he called one of them and said to him, “You have grown old in wickedness, and now the sins you committed in the past have caught up with you. You judged unfairly. You condemned the innocent and let the guilty go free, even though the Lord says, ‘You must not kill the innocent and the righteous.’
“Now then, if you saw her, tell me: under which tree did you see them together?”
“Under a ,” he answered.
“You have lied, and your lie will come back on you,” said Daniel. “Even now the of God has received God’s sentence on you, and he will cut you in two.”
So Daniel put him aside and ordered the other one brought in. “You descendant of , and not of !” he said to him. “Beauty has deceived you, and desire has twisted your heart. This is how you have treated the daughters of Israel: they were afraid of you, and they gave in to you. But this daughter of Judah would not put up with your wickedness.
“Now tell me, under which tree did you catch them together?”
“Under an evergreen oak,” he answered.
“You too have lied, and your lie will come back on you,” said Daniel. “The angel of God is waiting with the sword to cut you in two, so that he can destroy you.”
At that, the whole assembly shouted aloud and praised God, who saves those who hope in him.
Then they turned against the two elders, because Daniel had proved from their own words that they had lied. Following the law of Moses, the people did to the two elders what the elders had wickedly meant to do to their neighbor. They put them to death, and an innocent life was saved that same day.
So Helkias and his wife praised God for their daughter Susanna. Her husband Joakim and all their relatives praised God too, because nothing shameful had been found in her.
And from that day on, the people held Daniel in great honor.