What Does Daniel 7:5 Mean?
And look, another living one, a second, resembling a bear, raised itself to one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth. And thus they said to it, Rise, eat much flesh.
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 behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.THE KEY
The same Aramaic root first says the beast is raised and then commands it, “Arise”, its elevation becomes the prelude to its consumption.
THE MEANING
The vision places before you an unevenly raised beast with ribs between its teeth, still being urged to consume more flesh. Its rise and its appetite occupy the same scene: it is told to get up and devour much.
THE ROOT
אֲכֻלִי
ʾakuli
GROWS FROM
אכל
Eat; consume.
The Aramaic command is an imperative to eat, rendered here as “devour.” Its branches include both the act of consuming and what is consumed, giving the command a concrete reach beyond the English image of appetite.
ALSO GROWS
ʾākal: Eat.
אָכַל
The Hebrew cognate carries the same basic action as the Aramaic command.
maʾakhal: Food; something to eat.
מַאֲכָל
The noun turns the same root toward what the beast takes into itself.
ʾokhel: Food; eating.
אֹכֶל
This branch keeps the act and its object close together, as the verse does with the command to devour and the flesh named as its food.
הֳקִמַת
hoqimat
GROWS FROM
קום
Rise, stand, or set upright.
“raised itself to one side” in this verse is hoqimat. The Aramaic first uses this root for the beast being raised on one side, then repeats it in the command “Arise.” The repeated seed binds the creature’s raised position to the order that follows.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise; stand.
קוּם
This is the basic action repeated in the beast’s description and the command to it.
maqom: Place; standing place.
מָקוֹם
This Hebrew branch names a place in relation to standing, extending the root from rising into position.
tequmah: Rising; restoration.
תְּקוּמָה
This branch shows that the same root can name a return to standing, while the verse presents a rise that leads into consuming.
THE PATTERN
A consuming power reveals itself by continually widening the reach of its appetite.
Thus he said, The fourth living one shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, changed from all kingdoms, and it shall eat the whole earth, and thresh it, and crush it.Indeed, because wine betrays, a proud man does not stay at home. He widens living soul like the grave, and he is like death, and he is never filled. He gathers all the nations to himself, and heaps all the peoples to himself.And his tail sweeps down a third of the stars of heaven, and throws them to the earth. And the dragon stands before the woman who is ready to bring forth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it is born.THE THREAD
Thus he said, The fourth living one shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, changed from all kingdoms, and it shall eat the whole earth, and thresh it, and crush it.The Aramaic verb for “devour” in this verse returns in Daniel 7:23. Here the beast is commanded to consume much flesh; there, the same root describes its reach as the whole earth.
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