What Does Daniel 2:19 Mean?
Then the hidden thing was uncovered to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
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
Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.THE KEY
The secret is uncovered, and Daniel’s first response is blessing: the disclosure does not make the seer its source.
THE MEANING
When what is hidden becomes visible to you, this verse holds the revelation and its source together: insight is received, not self-created. Daniel’s answer is blessing directed toward the God of heaven, placing the seer in relation to what has been disclosed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that understanding makes the seer its own source: Daniel receives the disclosure and directs blessing to the God of heaven.
THE ROOT
גְּלִי
gəlî
GROWS FROM
גלה
g-l-h
To uncover, expose, or reveal.
The secret becomes visible by being uncovered; the word pictures disclosure, not something Daniel constructs. The same root names uncovering and exposure, letting the verse hold the hidden matter and its arrival in the open together.
ALSO GROWS
galah: To uncover or reveal.
גָּלָה
This verb form makes clear that revelation is an uncovering: what was hidden is brought into view.
galui: Uncovered, exposed, or open.
גָּלוּי
This branch describes the state of what has been revealed, the secret is no longer concealed.
בָּרִיךְ
barikh
GROWS FROM
ברך
b-r-k
Knee or bending; also to bless.
“blessed” in this verse is barikh. The blessing word shares its root with the word for knee, carrying a bodily image of bending within the language of blessing. Here, Daniel’s response to the unveiling is not self-congratulation but a posture of acknowledgment directed to God.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: Knee.
בֶּרֶךְ
This branch carries the bodily image of bending that echoes beneath the word for blessing.
berakhah: Blessing.
בְּרָכָה
This related word keeps the blessing sense close to its shared root and illuminates Daniel’s response to the revelation.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden becomes knowable through God’s disclosure, and the seeing turns attention toward God rather than the seer.
He uncovers the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light rests with him.The intimate circle of the LORD is with those in awe of him, and he makes his covenant known to them.But God unveiled them to us through his breath, for the breath searches all things, even the depths of God.THE THREAD
He uncovers the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light rests with him.Daniel 2:22 uses the same Aramaic root for “revealeth” that appears in “revealed” here. The root carries the sense of uncovering, so the secret in 2:19 is brought out of concealment and into view.
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