What Does Daniel 9:22 Mean?
And he made me discern, and talked with me, and said, "O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding."
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 informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.THE KEY
“He informed me” and “understanding” share one Hebrew root: the message and the capacity to discern it arrive together.
THE MEANING
Understanding reaches the reader as a gift that can arrive with the message itself. What becomes clear and the capacity to perceive it belong together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must manufacture understanding on your own before insight can reach you.
THE ROOT
וַיָּבֶן
wayyāḇēn binah
GROWS FROM
בין
b-y-n
To discern or distinguish; to perceive what lies between things.
“made me discern” in this verse is wayyāḇēn binah. The verb translated “informed” and the noun “understanding” both grow from this root. The verse joins receiving an insight with gaining the discernment to see it.
ALSO GROWS
hevin: To perceive or distinguish.
הֵבִין
This verb is the root’s action in “he informed me”: Daniel is brought to discern.
tevunah: The faculty of insight or discretion.
תְּבוּנָה
This related word shows that the root can name not only an act of perceiving, but the capacity to perceive.
דָּנִיֵּאל
Daniyyel
GROWS FROM
דין
d-y-n
Judgment; joined to אֵל (El, God), the name means “God is my judge.”
The message addresses Daniel by a name that carries judgment within it. Understanding arrives under a name that places judgment with God.
ALSO GROWS
dan: To judge or decide.
דָּן
This verb carries the judgment element that appears in Daniel’s name.
din: Judgment or a decision.
דִּין
This noun makes the name’s judgment-root explicit.
THE PATTERN
Understanding becomes available as something given, opened, or awakened within a person.
But there is a breath in man, and the breathing of the Almighty makes them discern.Then he threw open their minds, so that they might put the writings together.But if any of you is left behind in wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without doubling and without taunting, and it will be given him.THE THREAD
In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a word was uncovered to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar; and it was truth, and great was the warfare. And he understood the word, and understanding came to him in the sight.The same root appears in both “understood” and “understanding.” The repeated root shows that what is revealed and the capacity to discern the vision belong together.
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