What Does Daniel 11:29 Mean?
At the appointed time he turns back, and he comes toward the south, but the hindmost is not as the foremost.
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
At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.THE KEY
A return can arrive at its appointed time without repeating the outcome of the last journey.
THE MEANING
The ruler returns south at the appointed time, but this campaign does not unfold as the former ones did. The verse holds the return and its outcome apart: the same direction does not guarantee the same result.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a familiar return must recreate an earlier outcome does not hold here.
THE ROOT
מוֹעֵד
mo'ed
GROWS FROM
יעד
To appoint, designate, or set a meeting.
“time appointed” in this verse is mo'ed. מוֹעֵד (mo’ed) means an appointed time or meeting: the return has a set moment. But its arrival does not lock the outcome into a previous pattern.
ALSO GROWS
mo'ed: An appointed time, meeting, or festival.
מוֹעֵד
The ruler’s return happens at a designated time, even though what follows differs from before.
ya'ad: To appoint, designate, or meet.
יָעַד
This verb shows the seed within the appointed time: something is set to meet its moment.
שׁוּב
shuv
GROWS FROM
שוב
To turn back or return.
“turns back” in this verse is shuv. שׁוּב (shuv) carries the motion of turning back. The ruler revisits a route toward the south, but the verse does not say that turning back restores the earlier result.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To return or turn back.
שׁוּב
The word names the recurring movement at the center of the verse.
teshuvah: A return or turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This related form makes the turn itself visible: returning means coming back around, not necessarily arriving at the same outcome.
THE PATTERN
An appointed time can bring a familiar movement back without restoring its former outcome.
To everything there is an appointed time, and a time for every delight under the heavens.For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and at the end it will breathe and not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it. Because it will surely come, it will not stay behind.But when the time was filled, God sent out his Son, come from a woman, come under the instruction.THE THREAD
Both these kings' hearts are set on doing harm, and at one table they speak words that fail, but it does not break through, for the end is still at the appointed time.The preceding verse says that the kings’ scheme does not prosper because its end remains for the appointed time. The same מוֹעֵד (mo’ed), an appointed time, anchors the return in verse 29: its timing is set, but its outcome is not a replay.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us