What Does Daniel 9:9 Mean?
To the Lord our God belong compassions and releases, though we have rebelled against him.
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
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;THE KEY
The verse lets rebellion remain true while showing that compassion and pardon still belong to God.
THE MEANING
Your rebellion is not hidden or renamed; it remains in the sentence. Yet compassion and pardon belong to the Lord your God even here, holding the rupture and the possibility of release together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that rebellion leaves only distance, with no compassion or pardon remaining.
THE ROOT
הָרַחֲמִים
haraḥamim
GROWS FROM
רחם
r-ḥ-m
To show tender compassion; the root is associated with רֶחֶם (reḥem), meaning womb.
“compassions” in this verse is haraḥamim. The word for “mercies” shares its root with “womb” and “compassionate.” It opens compassion as tender, life-protecting care, named here without concealing rebellion.
ALSO GROWS
reḥem: Womb
רֶחֶם
This related word gives compassion a bodily image of tender, protective care.
raḥum: Compassionate, merciful
רַחוּם
This describes the compassionate nature behind the “mercies” named in the verse.
raḥamim: Compassion, mercies
רַחֲמִים
This is the form used in the verse, placing compassion beside the confessed rebellion.
הַסְּלִחוֹת
haselichot
GROWS FROM
סלח
s-l-ḥ
To forgive or pardon.
“releases” in this verse is haselichot. The Hebrew uses a plural form for “forgivenesses,” or pardons. Pardon stands beside the confessed revolt without turning revolt into innocence.
ALSO GROWS
sālaḥ: To forgive, pardon
סָלַח
This verb shows forgiveness as an act of pardon, not only a quality or feeling.
seliḥah: Pardon, forgiveness
סְלִיחָה
This related noun makes the verse’s plural “forgivenesses” legible as pardons.
THE PATTERN
Compassion and pardon meet failure while it is still named.
For you, Lord, are good, and ready to release, and abounding in faithful love to all who call out to you.Let the wicked leave his way, and the man of crookedness his plans. Let him turn back to the LORD, and he will have compassion on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly release.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
O my God, bend your ear, and hear. Open your eyes, and behold our emptied places, and the city which is called by your name, for we do not cast down our pleas before you upon our alignments, but upon your great compassions.The Hebrew for “mercies” repeats רחמים (raḥamim), from רחם (raḥam, to show compassion), the root at the center of verse 9. The prayer grounds its appeal not in human righteousness but in the same compassionate nature named there.
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