What Does Daniel 1:17 Mean?
As for these four children, God gave them learning and insight in all writing and wisdom, and Daniel discerned in all sights and dreams.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.THE KEY
Daniel’s distinction is discernment: he perceives what visions and dreams disclose, while all four receive knowledge and wisdom.
THE MEANING
Knowledge, learning, skill, and wisdom can be received rather than self-made. Understanding reaches beyond possessing information to discerning what you perceive, even in a vision or dream. The verse holds gift and perception together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This loosens the belief that understanding comes from collecting enough information alone: the verse distinguishes received knowledge from the discernment that perceives meaning.
THE ROOT
הֵבִין
hevin
GROWS FROM
בין
b-y-n
Discern, distinguish, understand.
“discerned” in this verse is hevin. This root carries the sense of discerning, not merely possessing facts. Its related form בֵּין (bein), meaning “between,” echoes the work of understanding: noticing distinctions and relations within what is perceived.
ALSO GROWS
binah: understanding, discernment
בִּינָה
It names the capacity the verse says Daniel has in visions and dreams.
bein: between, among
בֵּין
It evokes discernment as perceiving distinctions and relations within what appears.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, set, place.
“gave” in this verse is natan. The verb makes reception the hinge of the verse: the four’s capacities are given, not presented as self-originating. Its range also includes setting or placing, suggesting something entrusted into a life.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: gift, present
מַתָּנָה
It makes explicit that what is received can be understood as a gift.
natan: to give, set, place
נָתַן
The same verb frames the knowledge and skill as something placed in their lives.
מַדָּע
madda
GROWS FROM
יָדַע
yada
Know, perceive through encounter.
“learning” in this verse is madda. The word belongs to the knowing family associated with encounter and perception, so knowledge here reaches beyond detached information. It sits beside Daniel’s discernment: receiving knowledge and perceiving what a vision means are related, yet distinct capacities.
ALSO GROWS
yada: to know, perceive through encounter
יָדַע
It links knowledge with knowing what is encountered, rather than merely holding information.
daʿat: knowledge, knowing
דַּעַת
This related form echoes the knowledge given to all four.
THE PATTERN
Understanding takes shape through capacities that are received and then brought to bear on what is perceived.
And I have filled him with the breath of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of work.But if any of you is left behind in wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without doubling and without taunting, and it will be given him.Now we have taken hold not of the breath of the world, but of the breath that is from God, so that we might know the things God has favored us with.THE THREAD
For the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and discernment.The same Hebrew root נתן (natan), meaning “give, set, place,” stands behind “gave” in Daniel and “giveth” here. Both verses place wisdom, knowledge, and understanding within what God gives.
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