What Does Daniel 4:7 Mean in the King James?
Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.
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
A thing can be completely described and still remain unopened, because report and interpretation are different kinds of knowing.
THE MEANING
You can tell a thing accurately and still not perceive what it means for you. Information gives the shape of what happened; understanding is the disclosure that lets its significance become known. The verse makes this gap visible without treating it as a failure of the telling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that a clear description always means you understand what it means.
THE ROOT
פִּשְׁרֵהּ
pišrēh
GROWS FROM
פ־ש־ר
p-sh-r
to interpret or explain
Aramaic keeps interpretation in a word family for making sense of what is opaque: the dream is already recited, but its interpretation remains unavailable. The verse separates hearing the account from grasping the meaning it carries.
ALSO GROWS
pĕšar: to interpret or explain
פְּשַׁר
This names the work the court is asked to do: move from the told dream to its sense.
pišrā: interpretation, explanation
פִּשְׁרָא
This is the interpretation the king lacks; the missing piece is the dream’s sense, not its description.
מְהוֹדְעִין
məhodəʿîn
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
to know or recognize; in this causative form, to cause someone to know
The verb translated “make known” is causative: the court is asked to bring the interpretation into the king’s knowing. Hearing a description and receiving understanding are separate movements.
ALSO GROWS
yədaʿ: to know (Aramaic)
יְדַע
The verse’s causative form builds on knowing: the interpreters are asked to make the meaning known to the king.
yādaʿ: to know, recognize, perceive (Hebrew)
יָדַע
This cognate links knowing with recognition and perception, not merely possession of information.
THE PATTERN
A faithful account does not by itself unlock meaning; what is hidden becomes known through disclosure.
And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.THE THREAD
But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;The Aramaic wording translated “maketh known” uses the same root ידע (yədaʿ, “know”) as “make known” here. Daniel 2:28 shows how the gap in Daniel 4:7 closes: meaning becomes knowable through disclosure, not simply because the dream has been recounted.
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