What Does Daniel 2:23 Mean?
I extend my hands to you in thanks, and lift my voice to you, O God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might, and has made known to me now what we asked of you, for you have now made known to us the king's word.
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
I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.THE KEY
The revelation moves from “me” to “us”: knowing begins as a gift and becomes shared.
THE MEANING
You receive understanding that exceeds what you can produce alone: wisdom and might are given, and the hidden matter becomes known. The verse moves from “me” to “us,” showing what is disclosed through one person becoming shared with those who sought it. Gratitude names the source without claiming the insight as self-made.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that insight proves independence: wisdom, might, and the answer are received gifts.
THE ROOT
הוֹדַעְתַּנִי
hôdaʿtannî
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
Know, perceive, recognize.
“made known to me” in this verse is hôdaʿtannî. This Aramaic verb is causative: God brings the knowing about in the speaker. The same root carries the sense of knowing by encounter, so what was hidden becomes recognized and then moves from “me” to “us.”
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
This Hebrew cognate shares the seed of knowing that the verse presents as received and made clear.
maddaʿ: Knowledge or understanding.
מַדָּע
This noun from the same root shows knowing taking shape as something that can be carried and shared.
חָכְמְתָא
ḥokmətā
GROWS FROM
חכם
ḥ-k-m
Be wise or skillful.
The root also speaks of skill, so wisdom here is more than abstract information: it is discernment able to work with what is disclosed. It stands beside might, yet both are named as given rather than self-produced.
ALSO GROWS
ḥākām: A wise or skilled person.
חָכָם
The person is named by the capacity the verse says is given.
ḥokmāh: Wisdom or skill.
חָכְמָה
The Hebrew cognate keeps wisdom connected to practiced discernment, not information alone.
גְּבוּרְתָא
gebûrətā
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
Be strong, prevail, or prove able.
Might shares its root with the one who prevails, naming capacity to act rather than force in the abstract. Paired with wisdom, it too is received before the hidden matter is opened.
ALSO GROWS
gibbôr: A mighty or valiant one.
גִּבּוֹר
This branch gives the root a personal form: strength embodied in one able to act.
gābar: To prevail or grow strong.
גָּבַר
The verb reveals might as the capacity to stand and prevail, which the verse names as given.
THE PATTERN
Understanding is received when sought, then becomes available to be shared.
For the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and discernment.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.In that season Jesus answered, and said, I give thanks to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have covered these things from the wise and the discerning, and have uncovered them to the infants.THE THREAD
But there is a God in heaven who uncovers hidden things, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, are these.The same Aramaic knowing root returns in “maketh known”: what was hidden becomes recognized because it is disclosed. Here the verse names that knowing as a gift to the asker; the connected verse names the source and reach of the disclosure.
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