What Does Daniel 11:1 Mean in the King James?
Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse’s deeper image is that strength can take the shape of one person becoming another’s stronghold by standing with them.
THE MEANING
When your footing is uncertain, strength meets you as a presence that stands beside you and becomes refuge. Support is not only an inner surge; another’s steadiness can help hold you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must hold yourself up alone: strength here is shared, arriving through another’s presence.
THE ROOT
מַחֲזִיק
maḥazîq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be firm or strong; make strong, hold fast.
“strengthen” in this verse is maḥazîq. This root carries firmness across becoming strong, prevailing, and holding fast. Here, strength is shared: one who stands beside another helps make them firm.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong, grow firm, prevail.
חָזַק
Strength is something a person can come into or regain, not only a force they already possess.
heḥĕzîq: Hold fast, take hold, support.
הֶחֱזִיק
The same root links strength with holding, giving support the feel of holding someone steady.
מָעוֹז
maʿoz
GROWS FROM
עזז
Be strong, grow powerful.
“strengthen” in this verse is maʿoz. The noun מָעוֹז (maʿoz, stronghold or refuge) gives strength the shape of shelter. The support described here is not only encouragement; it is a place of safety another can lean upon.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōz: Strength, might.
עֹז
The root’s strength appears as a quality or capacity; here it takes the more concrete form of refuge.
ʿāzaz: Be strong, grow powerful.
עָזַז
This verbal branch names the force behind the stronghold: something firm enough to protect.
עָמְדִי
ʿāmadti
GROWS FROM
עמד
Stand, remain, take one’s stand.
“stood” in this verse is ʿāmadti. The verse begins its picture of support with standing. The root can carry both taking a position and remaining there, so the support feels like a presence that stays alongside another.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: Stand, remain, endure.
עָמַד
Standing can mean staying present, making support more than a passing word.
maʿamad: A standing, position, or station.
מַעֲמָד
The root also names a position one occupies, echoing the speaker’s taking a place beside another.
THE PATTERN
Strength becomes shelter when a presence stands beside someone under pressure.
But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is their strength in the time of trouble.Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.THE THREAD
And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.The same חזק (ḥāzaq, be strong or strengthen) root appears here as support given and in Daniel 10:19 as strength received. The root moves from one side of the relationship to the other: one presence strengthens, and another is strengthened.
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