What Does Daniel 7:26 Mean?
But the judgment shall sit, and they shall move away his dominion, to destroy and to perish until the end.
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
But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.THE KEY
The same word for dominion that is taken away here describes a rule elsewhere that will not pass away.
THE MEANING
When a power over you seems settled, this verse places it before judgment: its dominion can be taken away and brought to an end. What rules now does not therefore rule forever.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that whoever holds dominion now will always hold it.
THE ROOT
שָׁלְטָנֵהּ
sholṭāneh
GROWS FROM
שלט
The Aramaic noun שָׁלְטָן (sholṭān) means rule or dominion; שָׁלְטָנֵהּ (sholṭāneh) means “his dominion.” Its root שלט (sh-l-ṭ; shālaṭ) means to rule or exercise authority.
The Aramaic word for dominion appears again in Daniel 7:14, where that dominion will not pass away. The same word names a rule that can be removed here and a rule that endures there.
ALSO GROWS
sholṭān: Dominion, rule (Daniel 7:14).
שָׁלְטָן
The same noun names the enduring dominion set against the rule taken away in this verse.
shallīṭ: Rules, exercises authority (Daniel 4:17).
שַׁלִּיט
This branch names the act of ruling; here, that authority is stripped away.
דִּינָא
dînâ
GROWS FROM
דין
The Aramaic דִּינָא (dînâ) means judgment or adjudication. Its root דין (d-y-n; dîn) carries the sense of judging or deciding a case.
The judgment “sits”: the verse pictures a court taking its seat, making dominion answerable to a verdict. This is adjudication, not simply a vague force that happens to topple power.
ALSO GROWS
dîn: To judge or adjudicate.
דִּין
This verbal branch shows judgment as an act of deciding a case.
dayyān: A judge or adjudicator.
דַּיָּן
The related noun makes the court sense of “judgment shall sit” concrete.
לְהוֹבָדָה
lehōvādāh
GROWS FROM
אבד
The Aramaic root אבד (ʾ-b-d; ʾăbad) means to perish or be lost; its causative form means to bring something to ruin.
The verse does not describe dominion merely shrinking: the causative form brings it to ruin. The root’s basic sense, to perish or be lost, makes the ending total.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāvad: To perish or be lost.
אָבַד
This is the root’s basic sense: the dominion itself reaches an end.
heʾĕvîd: To cause to perish, destroy (Deuteronomy 7:24).
הֶאֱבִיד
This causative branch echoes the verse’s movement from judgment to the ending of dominion.
THE PATTERN
Dominion that seems settled can be judged, stripped, and brought to its end.
And dominion was given to him, and weight, and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and tongues should serve him. His dominion is a dominion of ages, which shall not be moved away, and his kingdom which shall not be destroyed.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world is thrown out.THE THREAD
And dominion was given to him, and weight, and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and tongues should serve him. His dominion is a dominion of ages, which shall not be moved away, and his kingdom which shall not be destroyed.Both verses use the Aramaic word שָׁלְטָן (sholṭān), “dominion.” One dominion is taken away and brought to its end; the other does not pass away.
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