To the wrath of Bel the deluge was attributed

In Scripture times he was known exclusively as a Babylonian divinity, being distinguished from both Nebo and Merodach. In the later Babylonian Empire, however, Merodach-came to be generally identified with Bel, though sometimes distinguished from him, being called “the le er Bel.” Bel and the Dragon, one of the books of the Apocrypha, or, more precisely, certain apocryphal chapters added to the canonical Book of Daniel. The Jews consider them as no part of their Scriptures. They were penned probably by an Alexandrian Jew, the language used being not Hebrew, nor Aramean, but Greek. The Church of Rome accepts Bel and the Dragon as part of the Holy Scripture; most, if not ali, Protestant churches reject it. The story of Bel and the Dragon tells how Daniel enlightened Cyrus, who is represented as having been a devout worshiper of Bel, by proving that the immense supplies of food laid before the idol were really consumed, not by it or by the inhabiting divinity, but by the priests and their families, On yrus urging that the dragon, also worshipped, was at least a living God, Daniel poisoned it, for which he was thrown into a lions’ den, where _the Prophet Habakkuk fed him. -Ultimately he was released, and his persecutors put to death.