What Does Daniel 7:17 Mean?
These great living ones, which are four, are four kings who shall rise from the ground.
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
These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.THE KEY
The vision names its terrifying beasts as kings: monstrous power is earthly rule made visible.
THE MEANING
The vision teaches you to see the powers shaping your world as living forces, not abstractions. Their scale may look inhuman, yet they rise from the earth and take the recognizable form of rulers. The image names what is monstrous without making it otherworldly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Monstrous power can seem like an alien force with no human face. The verse names its form as kings who rise from the earth.
THE ROOT
חֵיוָתָא
ḥêwātā
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
To live, to be alive.
“living ones” in this verse is ḥêwātā. The Aramaic word for beasts belongs to the life-word family. The vision pairs living creatures with kings, making rule appear as an active force that moves through the earthly world.
ALSO GROWS
ḥay: Living, alive; a Hebrew cognate.
חַי
It brings out the life within the beast image: these are pictured as living forces, not inert symbols.
ḥayyāh: A living creature or animal; a Hebrew cognate.
חַיָּה
This related word makes the creaturely quality of the vision concrete.
יְקוּמוּן
yəqūmūn
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
To stand, rise, or be established.
“rise from the ground” in this verse is yəqūmūn. The kings do not float above the world: they stand up from the earth. This root can also describe setting something in place, joining the image of their emergence to the question of how rulers become established.
ALSO GROWS
qām: He stood or arose; a Hebrew cognate.
קָם
It makes the verse’s rising motion visible: the kings come into view by standing up.
hēqîm: He raised, set up, or established; a Hebrew cognate.
הֵקִים
This causative form connects arising with being set in place, a link made explicit in Daniel 2:21.
מַלְכִין
malkîn
GROWS FROM
מלך
m-l-k
To rule or reign.
The word for king grows from the language of ruling. By calling the beasts kings, the vision links their creaturely power to the human office that rules on earth.
ALSO GROWS
malkā: King; Aramaic singular.
מַלְכָּא
It gives the plural in the verse a personal shape: each beast is interpreted as a ruler.
malkû: Kingdom, kingship, or dominion; Aramaic.
מַלְכוּ
It widens the image from individual rulers to the dominion their rule embodies.
THE PATTERN
Earthly dominion appears through rulers and living powers that rise, are set up, and can be brought down.
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.For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.And I stand upon the sand of the sea, and I perceive a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of wounding speech.THE THREAD
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.The Aramaic verb translated “arise” here and “setteth up” there share the root קום (q-w-m), to stand or rise. Daniel 7:17 shows kings rising from the earth; Daniel 2:21 uses the same root to speak of kings being set in place.
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