What Does Daniel 4:3 Mean?
How great are his signs! How mighty are his wonders! His governance is a governance of the ages, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
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
How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.THE KEY
The verse measures God’s rule twice: across the ages and through every generation that lives inside them.
THE MEANING
The signs and wonders disclose a power greater than any one generation can contain. God’s reign spans the ages, and its authority remains present as one generation gives way to another.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s power belongs only to the generation that first witnesses it.
THE ROOT
עָלַם
ʿālam
GROWS FROM
עלם
ʿ-l-m
An age or long span of time, extending toward the distant or indefinite future.
“of the ages” in this verse is ʿālam. The Aramaic speaks in the language of ages. The next phrase, “from generation to generation,” gives that vast span a human scale: the reign is enduring and present through each succession.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālam: Age; a long or distant span of time.
עָלַם
This is the age-language behind “everlasting,” opening the phrase toward the ages.
ʿālmîn: Ages; successive or enduring ages.
עָלְמִין
The plural form makes the verse’s scale easier to hear: the reign spans ages, while the next phrase names generation after generation.
שָׁלְטָן
šolṭān
GROWS FROM
שלט
š-l-ṭ
To rule or exercise authority.
The root points to authority being exercised, not merely to territory possessed. Joined to the ages and generations, dominion becomes an ongoing rule that persists through human change.
ALSO GROWS
šəlēṭ: To rule or have authority.
שְׁלֵט
The verb form makes the word’s active force clear: dominion is authority in action.
šallīṭ: One who has power or authority.
שַׁלִּיט
This related form names the one exercising authority, illuminating the living rule expressed by “dominion.”
THE PATTERN
God’s rule spans the ages and remains present through each generation.
Your governance is a governance of all ages, and your rule is in every generation and generation.And dominion was given to him, and weight, and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and tongues should serve him. His dominion is a dominion of ages, which shall not be moved away, and his kingdom which shall not be destroyed.And he will reign over the house of Jacob for the ages, and of his governance there will be no end.THE THREAD
And dominion was given to him, and weight, and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and tongues should serve him. His dominion is a dominion of ages, which shall not be moved away, and his kingdom which shall not be destroyed.Daniel 7:14 repeats the same Aramaic words for “kingdom” and “dominion,” then says this dominion does not pass away. The ages and generations in Daniel 4:3 open into a vision of authority no succession can erase.
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