What Does Daniel 11:39 Mean in the King James?
Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.
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 Hebrew binds “foreign” and “acknowledge” in one root: what is alien is recognized, given weight, then turned into rule and land assigned for a price.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to anyone living inside an order where fortified power recognizes a foreign authority and shows its honor in who rises over others. It turns shared ground into a priced allotment, making devotion, status, and territory part of one economy of control. The stronghold is constriction made structural: it secures rule for some by narrowing the world of many.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a ruler’s devotion is private or merely symbolic; here its measure is public, in the people empowered and the land made available for payment.
THE ROOT
נֵכָר
nekar
GROWS FROM
נכר
n-k-r
To recognize or identify; also to be foreign or strange.
“strange / acknowledge” in this verse is nekar. The words translated “strange” and “acknowledge” belong to the same root family: foreignness and recognition share a seed. The ruler does not merely encounter the foreign god; he recognizes it, and that recognition becomes visible in who receives rule.
ALSO GROWS
nekar: Foreignness; what is foreign.
נֵכָר
This is the foreign quality named in the verse’s description of the god.
nokhri: Foreign; a foreigner.
נָכְרִי
The same root family links the alien object of recognition to what is treated as foreign.
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; to carry weight.
The “glory” increased here carries the sense of weight and standing. The foreign god is made weighty in this order, and that honor shows up in the distribution of power that follows.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy; weighty.
כָּבֵד
It reveals the concrete sense beneath “glory”: what is honored is treated as carrying weight.
kibbed: To honor; to treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
This related form appears in the preceding verse, where the ruler honors the god with precious things.
בִּמְחִיר
bimchir
GROWS FROM
מכר
m-k-r
To sell; to put into a transaction.
“gain / price” in this verse is bimchir. The closing phrase ties the dividing of the land to a price or payment. The land is not only apportioned; its allotment belongs to a transaction in which ground and power become commodities.
ALSO GROWS
makhar: To sell.
מָכַר
The verb exposes the commercial sense carried by the price named at the verse’s end.
mimkar: A sale; something sold.
מִמְכָּר
This related form makes clear how territory can enter the order as something exchanged.
THE PATTERN
Power reveals its allegiance through what it rewards: authority and other people’s land become currency.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.THE THREAD
But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.The word “honour” in verse 38 comes from כבד, the same root beneath the “glory” increased in verse 39. The next verse shows the weight of that devotion in its consequences: people are raised over many, and land is apportioned for a price.
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