What Does Daniel 5:31 Mean?
And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.
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
And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.THE KEY
Darius takes the kingdom as one who receives it, so the verse holds succession and human limitation together.
THE MEANING
You see power change hands in a single line: the kingdom is received, and its new holder is still counted in years. Authority is real, but the person carrying it remains within the limits of a human life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The new holder of power has become permanent or stands beyond ordinary human limits.
THE ROOT
קַבֵּל
qabbēl
GROWS FROM
קבל
Q-B-L
To receive or accept; in context, to take over by receiving.
“took” in this verse is qabbēl. The Aramaic verb carries the sense of receiving as well as taking. The English can suggest possession alone; the root also reveals a transfer, with rule passing into someone’s hands.
ALSO GROWS
qabbēl: Receive, accept.
קַבֵּל
This is the verb in the verse: Darius takes the kingdom as one who receives it.
qabbəlun: They shall receive.
קַבְּלוּן
Daniel 7:18 uses this form for receiving the kingdom, echoing the transfer in this verse.
מַלְכוּתָא
malkutā
GROWS FROM
מלך
M-L-K
To be king, reign, or exercise rule.
The root connects kingdom with kingship and the act of reigning. The word holds active rule as well as the realm it governs, so what changes hands is authority, not merely territory.
ALSO GROWS
melek: King.
מֶלֶךְ
The king is the person who holds the authority named by this root.
malak: To reign or become king.
מָלַךְ
This verb makes the kingdom’s active dimension visible: it is rule being exercised.
malkut: Kingship, reign, kingdom.
מַלְכוּת
This cognate names the authority that passes to Darius.
THE PATTERN
Authority can change hands or be given, while its holders remain within time.
And he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who know understanding.But the set-apart ones of the Uplifted One shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom to the age, even to the ages of ages.Do not tremble, little flock, for your Father delights to give you the governance.THE THREAD
But the set-apart ones of the Uplifted One shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom to the age, even to the ages of ages.The Aramaic verb translated “shall take” shares the root קבל (Q-B-L), “receive,” with “took” in this verse. The repeated root makes the transfer of the kingdom audible across both passages.
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