What Does Daniel 5:2 Mean?
Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king, and his great ones, his wives, and his concubines, might drink in them.
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
Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.THE KEY
The same Aramaic root describes the vessels being taken out of Jerusalem’s temple and the order to bring them out again: their sacred origin travels with them into the feast.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks in the instant appetite reaches for what is set apart and makes it serve consumption. The repeated Aramaic root keeps the vessels’ movement visible: out of the temple, then out into the banquet. Jerusalem, named as their source and carrying the root of wholeness, stays in the sentence while their use changes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that changing how something is used erases the nature it carries from its source.
THE ROOT
לְהַנְפָּקָה
lehanpāqāh
GROWS FROM
נפק
To go out, come forth, or bring out.
“bring out / take out” in this verse is lehanpāqāh. English renders the vessels’ earlier removal and the king’s new order with different phrases, while the Aramaic repeats נפק. The same root keeps their movement out of the temple visible as they are brought into the feast.
ALSO GROWS
hanpīqū: They brought out.
הַנְפִּיקוּ
This form describes the vessels’ removal from the temple and echoes the order to bring them out for the feast.
nephaqat: Went out, issued forth.
נְפַקַת
In Daniel 2:13 this root describes a decree going forth, showing how its sense can extend from physical movement to an order released into action.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries the root of shalom, wholeness, with the dual ending -ayim. The vessels’ source remains named as a place of wholeness even while their use is changed.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
It names the wholeness carried in Jerusalem’s name, setting the vessels’ source against their use at the feast.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the root’s sense concrete: wholeness remains the frame attached to the city named as the vessels’ origin.
טָעַם
ṭaʿam
GROWS FROM
טעם
To taste; by extension, to discern or decree.
“tasted” in this verse is ṭaʿam. The Aramaic root spans tasting and judgment or decree. Here the taste of wine sits immediately beside an order that sends the temple vessels into the feast.
ALSO GROWS
ṭaʿam: To taste, experience.
טָעַם
This is the word behind tasting the wine, the bodily act that opens the scene.
ṭəʿēm: Judgment, decree, command.
טְעֵם
This related form shows the root’s reach from taking something in to a ruling that sends something forth.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart carries a claim from its source even when it changes hands or use.
And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the set-apart place and all its vessels, as the camp pulls up, then the sons of Kohath shall come to lift it. But they shall not touch any set-apart thing, lest they die. These are the loads of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of clay; and some for honor, and some for dishonor.Or have you not seen that your body is a temple of the Set-Apart Breath within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?THE THREAD
Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king, and his great ones, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.The same Aramaic root marks the vessels being brought out and their earlier removal from the temple. Verse 2 gives the order; verse 3 shows that movement reaching the table.
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