What Does Daniel 1:21 Mean?
And Daniel remained until the first year of king Cyrus.
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
And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.THE KEY
Cyrus sets the year, but Daniel’s name says God is his judge, and the Hebrew verb quietly says Daniel was there.
THE MEANING
Your life is not exhausted by the season or power that gives it a date. Daniel is there through the first year of Cyrus, and his name carries “God is my judge.” The verse places continued presence beside a changed ruler.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The power over this season gets to decide how long my life can continue.
THE ROOT
דָּנִיֵּאל
Dāniyyēl
GROWS FROM
דין
d-y-n
To judge or render judgment; Daniel combines “my judge” with אֵל (El, God).
The verse sets Daniel’s name beside a king’s calendar. Cyrus marks the year, while Daniel’s name carries God as his judge; the name holds a second measure within the sentence.
ALSO GROWS
Dān: A name from the same judgment root.
דָּן
Daniel’s first element echoes this root, which Rachel connects to God’s judgment when she names Dan.
dānannī: A verb form from דין, used in Rachel’s words “God hath judged me.”
דָּנַנִּי
It shows the judgment root inside Daniel’s name is active language, not only a label.
וַיְהִי
Wayehi
GROWS FROM
היה
To be, become, or happen.
“remained” in this verse is Wayehi. The Hebrew clause is close to “and Daniel was until…”; the KJV’s “continued” brings out the duration implied by that endpoint. The same root forms אֶהְיֶה (ʾehyeh, “I am / I will be”), so the modest verb of being belongs to a word family that can speak across time.
ALSO GROWS
ʾehyeh: A form of היה in Exodus 3:14.
אֶהְיֶה
It shows the root can express being beyond a single dated moment.
wayehi: A form of היה, also used in Genesis 1:3: “And there was light.”
וַיְהִי
The same root can mark what comes into being; here it marks Daniel’s presence up to a boundary.
THE PATTERN
A life can remain present through a change in rule without being defined by a single reign.
A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, you are our dwelling place in generation and generation.By trust he left Egypt behind, not fearing the seething of the king, for he held firm as one who sees the unseen.Pursued, but not left behind; thrown down, but not perishing.THE THREAD
And Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard and responded to my voice, and has given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan, judgment.Rachel’s words “God hath judged me” give the name Dan its root דין (d-y-n), and Daniel carries that same seed with El, God. The royal date sits beside a name that already carries its own account of judgment.
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