What Does Daniel 6:14 Mean?
Then, when the king heard these words, it lay heavy upon him, and he set his heart upon Daniel to bring him out, and he toiled until the sun went in to bring him out.
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 the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him.THE KEY
The two English “deliver”s hide two Aramaic roots: one names the king’s aim, and the other names his sustained attempt.
THE MEANING
You can see concern pressing against the limits of authority: the king turns his resolve toward Daniel’s rescue and labors through the day, yet his decree still narrows the path. The verse holds care and constraint in the same moment; wanting someone free does not itself open a way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that authority can instantly undo what it has set in motion falls away: the king’s concern is real, yet his own binding order still limits what he can do.
THE ROOT
לְהַצָּלָתֵהּ
ləhaṣṣālāṯēh
GROWS FROM
נצל
To rescue or pull someone out of danger or bondage.
This second “deliver” comes from נצל, the same root behind “I will rid you” in Exodus 6:6. The shared root gives the king’s effort the shape of pulling Daniel out of a binding condition.
ALSO GROWS
ləhaṣṣālāṯēh: To deliver him, rescue him.
לְהַצָּלָתֵהּ
This is the verse’s word for the effort the king keeps making through the day.
wəhiṣṣaltî: And I will deliver you, rid you out.
וְהִצַּלְתִּי
In Exodus 6:6, the same root names rescue as being brought out from under bondage.
לְשֵׁיזָבוּתֵהּ
ləšēzāvūṯēh
GROWS FROM
שזב
To deliver, rescue, or preserve from danger.
“bring him out” in this verse is ləšēzāvūṯēh. The first “deliver” comes from שזב and names the rescue the king sets his heart on achieving. The sentence then shifts to נצל for his continuing effort, while English repeats the same word for both movements.
ALSO GROWS
ləšēzāvūṯēh: To deliver him, rescue him.
לְשֵׁיזָבוּתֵהּ
This form states the king’s aim before the verse describes his labor.
yəšēzib: He will deliver.
יְשֵׁיזִב
Daniel 3:17 uses the same root for deliverance from the furnace and the king’s hand.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance means movement out of what binds, even while the binding force is still present.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Because the creation itself will also be set free from the slavery of decay into the weighty freedom of the children of God.THE THREAD
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.The second “deliver” in Daniel comes from נצל, the same root behind “I will rid you” here. That shared root frames rescue as being pulled out of bondage, sharpening the king’s effort to free Daniel from a condition his own decree has helped create.
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