What Does Daniel 4:28 Mean in the King James?
All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
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 Aramaic word translated “came” is also translated “reached”: the announced outcome has reached the king.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the moment when what seemed distant becomes lived reality. “All this” gathers the whole outcome into one arrival, and the king’s title does not keep it away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being powerful can keep an announced consequence from reaching me.
THE ROOT
מְטָא
mĕṭāʾ
GROWS FROM
מטא
To reach, arrive, come to.
In Daniel 4:11 and 4:22, this same Aramaic verb describes the tree’s height and the king’s greatness reaching heaven; here it says the outcome came upon him. English separates “reached” from “came,” while the Aramaic joins them in one image of arrival.
ALSO GROWS
mĕṭāʾ: Reached
מְטָא
In Daniel 4:11, the tree’s height reaches heaven; the same verb links reaching a destination with arrival.
mĕṭāʾ: Reached
מְטָא
In Daniel 4:22, the king’s greatness reaches heaven, just before the outcome reaches him.
מַלְכָּא
malkāʾ
GROWS FROM
מלך
To reign or rule.
The title “king” shares its root with words for kingdom and rule, so it carries the idea of sovereignty within it. Here, the outcome arrives upon the one whose title names his power to rule.
ALSO GROWS
malkûtāʾ: Kingdom, kingship
מַלְכוּתָא
In Daniel 4:31, this word names the kingdom that departs from the king.
mĕlaḵ: To reign, rule
מְלַךְ
This verbal form makes explicit the act of ruling carried within the title “king.”
THE PATTERN
What is announced has an appointed reach: it arrives as lived reality.
The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.THE THREAD
It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.The Aramaic verb translated “reacheth” here is the same root as “came” in the current verse. The king’s greatness reaches heaven, then the outcome reaches him.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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