What Does Daniel 9:12 Mean?
And he has raised up his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil, for under all the heavens nothing has been done as has been done upon Jerusalem.
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 he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.THE KEY
The word behind “confirmed” means to make stand: the warning becomes a reality the people must bear.
THE MEANING
This verse places you before the weight of words that stand as lived consequence. It names Jerusalem’s devastation as unmatched beneath the whole heaven, without reducing the harm to a figure of speech.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that divine words can remain weightless warnings: here, the words stand as catastrophe.
THE ROOT
וַיָּקֶם
wayyaqem
GROWS FROM
קום
To rise, stand, or be established; in this form, to cause something to stand or establish it.
“raised up” in this verse is wayyaqem. The Hebrew verb pictures the words standing up in reality. What was spoken is no longer only speech; it takes form as the calamity the people endure.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root’s basic image: the words stand as lived consequence.
heqim: Raise up or establish.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows how the root can describe making a word or covenant stand.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name carries the sound and sense of shalom, wholeness. The verse holds that name beside devastation so vast that the place named for wholeness bears unmatched harm.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness or well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch makes the contrast between Jerusalem’s name and the ruin upon it especially sharp.
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
The same root’s sense of completeness gives depth to the verse’s account of what has been shattered.
רָעָה
raʿah
GROWS FROM
רעע
To be harmful or bad; the word can name evil or calamity.
Here רָעָה (raʿah) names a calamity borne by a community, not merely a person’s moral defect. “Great evil” stays concrete in the verse: immense harm upon Jerusalem.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad, evil, or harmful.
רַע
This related form carries the sense of harm that the verse names as a great calamity.
roaʿ: Harm or evil.
רֹעַ
This noun keeps the root’s emphasis on what damages, clarifying the force of what is brought upon the people.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word that is established becomes visible in what unfolds.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.There fell not one good word of all that the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all of it came.Heaven and earth pass by, but my words do not pass by.THE THREAD
And God said, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son indeed, and you shall call his name Isaac, he will laugh. I will make my covenant stand with him, for a covenant of the ages, and with his seed after him.The Hebrew behind “I will establish” and “he hath confirmed” shares the root קום (qum), meaning to stand or establish. In Genesis a covenant is made to stand; here words stand as devastating consequence, showing how the same root makes establishment concrete.
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