a place with people who are unfriendly or hostile toward someone who must enter

—Last week our company’s stocks lost 30% of their value. Now I have to go into the lion’s den and face the board of directors.

King Darius gave Daniel great authority in the kingdom of Babylon. This made some of the other Babylonian officials jealous, and they made plans to trap him. They convinced the king to make a new law, saying that for 30 days anyone who prayed to a god or man other than the king would be thrown into a pit of lions. Daniel continued to pray to the God of Israel three times a day, and even though the king did not want Daniel punished, he was bound by the law and Daniel was sealed into the lions’ den.

In the morning, at the earliest sign of daylight, the king got up and rushed to the lions’ den [den of lions]. As he approached the den, he called out to Daniel in a worried voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God whom you continually serve able to rescue you from the lions?”

Then Daniel spoke to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and closed the lions’ mouths so that they have not harmed me, because I was found to be innocent before him. Nor have I done any harm to you, O king.”

Then the king was delighted and gave an order to haul Daniel up from the den. So Daniel was hauled up out of the den. He had no injury of any kind, because he had trusted in his God. (Daniel 6:19-23)

The phrase Daniel in the lions’ den can be used to represent someone who enters a place of opposition and stands up for his beliefs.