What Does Daniel 11:14 Mean?
And in those times many stand up against the king of the south. Also the breakers of your people lift themselves up to make the vision stand, but they stumble.
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 in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall.THE KEY
The same root first describes people standing against a ruler, then their attempt to make a vision stand, before the would-be establishers themselves stumble.
THE MEANING
The verse names a living pattern: many can rise against power, and people can lift themselves up to make a vision stand. Yet their own footing gives way; the attempt ends in stumbling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that a cause becomes secure simply because its champions exalt themselves and force it into view; the verse shows their effort ending in a stumble.
THE ROOT
לְהַעֲמִיד
lehaʿamid
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
To stand, remain, or take one’s place; in this form, to cause to stand or set up.
“make stand” in this verse is lehaʿamid. The verse uses this root twice: many “stand up against” the king, and the breakers seek “to establish” a vision, to make it stand. English makes these sound like separate actions, while Hebrew links opposition and attempted establishment; the people who lift themselves to do it then stumble.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: To stand, remain, or take one’s place.
עָמַד
This is the root in “stand up against,” echoing the effort to make the vision stand.
heʿemid: To cause to stand, set up, or establish.
הֶעֱמִיד
This causative form names the attempt to give the vision a standing.
וְנִכְשָׁלוּ
wenikhshalu
GROWS FROM
כשל
k-sh-l
To stumble, totter, or fail.
“stumble” in this verse is wenikhshalu. The verse ends with stumbling language, not simply the loss of a position. After trying to make a vision stand, its champions are the ones whose footing fails; the text leaves that reversal stark.
ALSO GROWS
kāshal: To stumble or totter.
כָּשַׁל
This verb gives the ending its image of people losing their footing.
mikhshol: A stumbling block or obstacle.
מִכְשׁוֹל
This noun from the same root makes failure concrete as something that trips a person.
פָּרִיצֵי
paritsei
GROWS FROM
פרץ
p-r-ts
To break through, make a breach, or burst out.
“Robbers” can sound like a description of theft alone, while this Hebrew form carries the image of breakers, people who force a breach. Beside the repeated language of standing, that image makes their attempt to establish a vision feel forceful and unsettled.
ALSO GROWS
pārats: To break through, burst out, or spread.
פָּרַץ
The verb carries the force of pressing through a boundary.
perets: A breach or break.
פֶּרֶץ
This related noun shows the breach-making image inside the description of the people.
THE PATTERN
Self-exalting force can raise a vision without giving it lasting footing; those who press it upward may stumble.
The LORD breaks the counsel of nations; he undoes the plans of peoples.Swelling goes before breaking, and a breath lifted high goes before a stumbling.For everyone who lifts himself will be brought low; and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.THE THREAD
And at that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands over the children of your people. And there shall be a time of narrowing, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time your people shall slip free, every one found written in the book.Both “stand up” and “standeth” come from עמד (ʿāmad), “to stand or take one’s place.” In the connected verse, מִיכָאֵל (Mikha’el, “Who is like God?”) stands for the people; the shared root turns from opposition and attempted establishment toward protection and deliverance.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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