What Does Daniel 9:4 Mean?
And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, and said, "O Lord, the great and awe-inspiring God, keeping the covenant and faithful love for those who love him, and for those who keep his commandments;"
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 I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;THE KEY
The same Hebrew root describes God keeping covenant and people keeping commandments, revealing guarding as the shared shape of faithfulness.
THE MEANING
Your prayer holds confession together with the naming of God’s nature. The LORD is great and awe-inspiring, guarding covenant and faithful love; the same Hebrew verb describes those who guard the commandments. Love appears here as a lived bond, held through keeping.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the idea that confession is only self-accusation: its Hebrew verb also carries acknowledgment and thanksgiving, and the words immediately name God’s faithful character.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמֵר
shomer
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
To guard, watch over, or preserve.
English can make the two instances of “keeping” sound generic, but both come from shamar: God guards the covenant, and people guard the commandments. The shared root places covenant care and lived fidelity within the same pattern of guarding.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: To guard, keep, or watch over.
שָׁמַר
This is the verb underlying both God’s keeping of the covenant and the people’s keeping of the commandments.
mishmeret: A charge, guard duty, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows keeping as an entrusted charge, illuminating the commandments as something guarded in practice.
וְהַחֶסֶד
veha-chesed
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful kindness and covenant loyalty.
Here, chesed names faithful love within a covenant. It gives “mercy” the further sense of loyal care that holds across an enduring relationship.
ALSO GROWS
chesed: Faithful love or covenant loyalty.
חֶסֶד
This is the word rendered “mercy” in the verse, joining God’s guarding of the covenant with enduring care.
chasid: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
This related word shows the same family of faithfulness embodied in a person.
וָאֶתְוַדֶּה
va'etvaddah
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
To acknowledge, give thanks, praise, or confess.
“confessed” in this verse is va'etvaddah. The Hebrew word for confession also carries acknowledgment and thanksgiving. The verse places confession beside the naming of God’s character, so it holds recognition together with self-disclosure.
ALSO GROWS
yadah: To acknowledge, praise, give thanks, or confess.
יָדָה
This is the root verb behind the confession in the verse and carries a wider sense than admission alone.
todah: Thanksgiving, praise, or confession.
תּוֹדָה
This related noun shows how the same root can express both confession and gratitude.
THE PATTERN
Love is made visible as keeping: covenant faithfulness and commandment-keeping belong to one relationship.
Perceive therefore that the LORD your God is God, the steady God, who guards the covenant and faithful love for those who love him and guard his commands to a thousand generations.If you love me, guard my instructions.THE THREAD
The LORD watches over you from all harm; he watches over your living soul.Daniel’s description uses shamar for God’s keeping of the covenant; Psalm 121:7 uses that same root twice in “preserve.” The shared root opens covenant-keeping as active guarding of the living soul.
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