So a decree went out, and the wise men were about ¹  to be executed. They also sought ²  Daniel and his friends so that they could be executed.

And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, ¹  was killed. ² 

Then Daniel spoke with prudent counsel ¹  to Arioch, who was in charge of the king’s executioners and who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon.

But since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace was so excessively hot, the men who escorted ¹  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were killed ²  by the leaping flames. ³ 

“Then I kept on watching because of the arrogant words of the horn that was speaking. I was watching ¹  until the beast was killed and its body destroyed and thrown into ²  the flaming fire.

Due to the greatness that he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and language groups were trembling with fear ¹  before him. He killed whom he wished, he spared ²  whom he wished, he exalted whom he wished, and he brought low whom he wished.