What Does Daniel 6:11 Mean?
Then these men rushed together, and found Daniel seeking and pleading for favor before his God.
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
Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.THE KEY
The men can find Daniel’s prayer, but they cannot become its audience.
THE MEANING
The verse puts the prayer in the open: these men find Daniel asking and pleading before his God. Their eyes reach him, but his appeal remains before God; being seen does not change who receives it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that being watched can turn prayer into a performance for watchers: the men see Daniel, yet the prayer is still before his God.
THE ROOT
מִתְחַנַּן
mithḥannan
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
to show favor
“pleading for favor” in this verse is mithḥannan. This Aramaic form grows from ḥanan, the same root Hebrew uses for showing favor. Supplication here is an appeal for favor before God; the word itself points toward the quality the prayer seeks.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: favor
חֵן
This branch names what Daniel’s supplication appeals for.
ḥannūn: one who shows favor; gracious
חַנּוּן
This branch describes the one Daniel addresses, linking the plea to God’s nature.
בָּעֵא
bāʿēʾ
GROWS FROM
בְּעָא
b-ʿ-ʾ
to seek, ask, request
The Aramaic word translated “praying” means asking or seeking. The same root appears in the decree’s wording about asking a petition in Daniel 6:7, so the verse exposes the conflict in one word: Daniel remains found asking before God.
ALSO GROWS
lemibʿē: to seek, ask (Daniel 2:18)
לְמִבְעֵא
The same verb describes seeking God’s mercy, showing prayer as a direct appeal.
yibʿē: he asks, petitions (Daniel 6:7)
יִבְעֵא
The decree names the very act Daniel is found doing, tying his prayer to the pressure surrounding it.
THE PATTERN
Pressure may expose prayer to human eyes without changing the one before whom it is spoken.
Evening, and morning, and at noon, I murmur and roar, and he hears and responds to my voice.And now, LORD, look upon their threats, and give your servants to speak your word with all boldness.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Daniel’s Aramaic “making supplication” grows from ḥanan, the same root behind the Hebrew ḥannūn, “one who shows favor,” used here of the LORD. The prayer’s wording turns toward the favor-bearing nature of the one Daniel addresses.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us