What Does Daniel 4:31 Mean?
While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken; the kingdom has passed from you.
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
While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.THE KEY
The king is still named king at the exact moment his governance departs.
THE MEANING
The verse places your grasp on power under this light: governance can leave even while its holder is still called king. A voice beyond the king’s own speech names the loss while his words are still in his mouth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that holding power makes it self-owned and permanent dissolves here: a title can remain as its governance disappears.
THE ROOT
מַלְכוּתָא
malkûtā
GROWS FROM
מלך
To reign; to exercise rule or governance.
“kingdom” in this verse is malkûtā. The Aramaic word names the reign itself. The sentence keeps the king’s title in place while removing that governance, separating the person called king from the power that once answered to him.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: King.
מֶלֶךְ
The verse still addresses him as king even as the governance departs.
mālak: To reign.
מָלַךְ
The shared root ties the kingdom to the act of ruling: what departs is the reign, not merely a territory.
מִלְּתָא
millətā
GROWS FROM
מלל
To speak or utter.
The Aramaic word for “word” grows from the root of speaking. The king’s speech is still forming when the voice from heaven answers, making the interruption part of the verse’s meaning.
ALSO GROWS
millāh: A word or utterance.
מִלָּה
This branch keeps the king’s spoken word at the center of the scene.
memallel: Speaking or uttering.
מְמַלֵּל
This verb form makes the root’s link between a word and the act of speaking explicit.
THE PATTERN
Human rule can be withdrawn in a moment by the authority above it.
The LORD strips, and makes rich; he lays low, and lifts high.For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.THE THREAD
But when his heart was lifted high, and his breath was hardened in swelling, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and they took his weight from him.The Aramaic repeats the m-l-k root in its phrase for his kingly throne, tying both verses to governance. This verse catches the moment the kingdom departs; Daniel 5:20 names the throne and glory as taken, opening the same loss further.
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