What Does Daniel 6:24 Mean?
And the king commanded, and they brought those men who had laid charges against Daniel, and they threw them into the pit of lions, them, their children, and their wives. The lions ruled over them, and ground all their bones to dust before they came to the earth of the pit.
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 the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.THE KEY
The Aramaic idiom for the men who accused Daniel pictures them as “eating his pieces,” before the verse describes their bodies and bones crushed by the lions.
THE MEANING
The king’s command reaches the men who accused Daniel, their children, and their wives. The lions have mastery over them before they reach the bottom, breaking all their bones in pieces. The verse holds accusation, royal power, and bodily destruction in one stark scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that punishment stays confined to the accused is undone here: the command sweeps in their wives and children too.
THE ROOT
אֲכַלּוּ קַרְצֹוהִי
ʾăḵalū qarṣōhî
GROWS FROM
אכל
eat, consume
“had laid charges against Daniel” in this verse is ʾăḵalū qarṣōhî. The Aramaic idiom behind “accused” pictures the men as “eating Daniel’s pieces,” making accusation sound like consumption. The verse carries that bodily image into the lions’ mastery and the crushing of bones, while the king’s command also engulfs their families.
ALSO GROWS
ʾăḵālāh: food
אֲכָלָה
This noun from אכל keeps the root’s sense of consuming visible beneath the accusation idiom.
ʾōḵēl: eater
אָכֵל
The eater is the one who consumes; the idiom makes the accusers’ speech itself sound predatory.
שְׁלִטוּ
šəlîṭû
GROWS FROM
שלט
have power, rule, dominate
“ruled over” in this verse is šəlîṭû. The lions do not merely attack; the verse says they exercise dominion over the people cast into the den. The language sets the king’s command beside another power whose rule ends in crushed bones.
ALSO GROWS
šoltān: dominion, authority
שָׁלְטָן
This noun names the rule or power expressed by the lions’ mastery in the verse.
šelîṭ: having power, in control
שְׁלִיט
This form describes one who holds power, echoing the verse’s account of the lions controlling the outcome.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures hostile speech and predatory power through images of mouths that consume, wound, or devour.
So at that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews.My living soul is among lions; I lie down among the blazing ones, sons of humankind, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and whose tongue is a sharp sword.THE THREAD
So at that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews.The Aramaic phrase translated “accused” shares the same wording as Daniel 6:24, literally picturing the accusers as eating the pieces of their target. Here that consuming image stands beside bodies thrown to lions and bones crushed, making the force of the idiom newly visible.
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