What Does Daniel 6:25 Mean?
Then King Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and tongues, who dwell in all the earth. May your wholeness increase.
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 king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.THE KEY
The king’s message does not merely wish for calm; it sends wholeness multiplying across every people and language.
THE MEANING
This word reaches you beyond the boundaries of your own people or language: wholeness is spoken across every place where people live. It is not a fixed measure; it can grow and spread.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wholeness is scarce and must be kept for one’s own people: here it is addressed to every people and language, with room to increase.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָם
shelām
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
š-l-m
Wholeness, completeness, soundness
The Aramaic greeting carries the same root as Hebrew shalom: peace as wholeness, not only quiet. This root family also speaks of being complete and making good what is owed, giving the blessing a sense of restored wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch makes clear that the greeting reaches beyond the absence of conflict to a fuller state of well-being.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It shows that peace belongs to the condition of being made whole.
shillem: Repaid, made good
שִׁלֵּם
This branch links wholeness with restoring what is owed or missing.
יִשְׂגֵּא
yisgeh
GROWS FROM
שׂגה
ś-g-h
To grow, increase, become great
The blessing is not a fixed measure of calm: the verb means to grow or increase, so wholeness is pictured as expanding across those addressed. The phrase joins wholeness with increase, what is whole can multiply.
ALSO GROWS
sāgāh: Grow, increase
שָׂגָה
This verbal form makes the blessing’s movement explicit: it expands.
śaggîʾ: Great, abundant
שַׂגִּיא
This related Aramaic form shows the root’s movement from increase toward abundance.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness is spoken outward as a blessing that can increase and reach many people.
Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all peoples, nations, and tongues that dwell in all the earth. Let your wholeness be multiplied to you.Favor and wholeness be multiplied to you through the full knowing of God and of Jesus our Lord.The LORD lift up his face upon you, and give you wholeness.THE THREAD
Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all peoples, nations, and tongues that dwell in all the earth. Let your wholeness be multiplied to you.Daniel 4:1 repeats the same Aramaic greeting, including שְׁלָם (shelām, wholeness) and יִשְׂגֵּא (yisgeh, increase). The shared roots make the blessing’s reach unmistakable: wholeness can multiply across peoples and languages.
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