What Does Daniel 4:27 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.
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 word translated “break off” also describes breaking a yoke from the neck: here, severing wrongdoing takes the form of alignment and favor toward the poor.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the part of you that can shape other lives: wrongdoing is broken away through alignment that takes visible form as favor toward the poor. It holds tranquility out as a possibility that may be lengthened, not a promised result.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wrongdoing can be left behind through private regret while people made vulnerable by your power remain neglected.
THE ROOT
פְרֻק
peruq
GROWS FROM
פרק
p-r-q
To break away, tear off, or remove.
“break off” in this verse is peruq. This Aramaic word shares its root with Hebrew words for breaking something away. The image is concrete: wrongdoing is something to sever, like a yoke detached from a neck.
ALSO GROWS
ūfāraqta: You will break off.
וּפָרַקְתָּ
In Genesis 27:40, the same root describes breaking a yoke from the neck, giving Daniel’s command an image of release from what binds.
vayyitpāreqū: They broke off or removed.
וַיִּתְפָּרְקוּ
Exodus 32:2 uses this root for removing earrings; the shared word keeps the sense of physical separation visible.
צִדְקָה
ṣidqāh
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right or just; rightness and alignment.
“righteousness” in this verse is ṣidqāh. The word carries the sense of alignment with what is right. The verse makes that alignment tangible by linking it to favor shown to the poor, so rightness is visible in how people with little power are treated.
ALSO GROWS
ṣedeq: Justice, rightness.
צֶדֶק
This form names the quality behind the verse’s “righteousness”: the breaking of wrongdoing involves restoring right order.
ṣaddiq: A just or righteous person.
צַדִּיק
The same root describes a person in terms of rightness, connecting the verse’s action to the character it expresses.
מִחַן
miḥan
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor or act graciously.
“shewing mercy” in this verse is miḥan. The Aramaic phrase presents mercy as favor shown to people in poverty. Its root connects that act with favor itself: compassion becomes something given, not merely felt.
ALSO GROWS
ḥen: Favor.
חֵן
This noun from the same root shows the shared idea of favor, while Daniel makes that favor concrete toward the poor.
ḥanan: To show favor or be gracious.
חָנַן
This verb expresses the root’s action directly, illuminating mercy here as an enacted gift of favor.
THE PATTERN
Turning from wrongdoing takes visible form in justice and care for people with the least power.
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.THE THREAD
And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.The verb translated “break off” in Daniel shares the root פרק (p-r-q) with “break his yoke” here. That link makes the separation concrete: what binds is broken away, and Daniel names alignment and favor toward the poor as the form that severing takes.
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