What Does Daniel 5:22 Mean in the King James?

And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

Daniel 5:22 · KJV

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

Knowing the truth does not humble a heart that still insists on standing above it.

THE MEANING

You can recognize what is true and still keep your inner self elevated against it. This verse names the gap between what reaches your understanding and what is allowed to lower your stance. The knowledge is present; the heart’s yielding is absent.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that knowing the right thing is the same as being changed by it.

THE ROOT

הַשְׁפֵּלְתָּ

hashpēltā

GROWS FROM

שפל

sh-p-l

to be low, or to bring low

“humbled” in this verse is hashpēltā. The Aramaic verb carries the shape of lowering. The sentence sets knowing beside a heart that refuses to come down: the missing change is not new information but a lowered inward stance.

ALSO GROWS

shāphāl: low, lowly

שָׁפָל

This adjective names the low position carried in Daniel’s verb for humbling.

hishpîl: to lower, bring down

הִשְׁפִּיל

This active form makes clear that the root describes a lowering, the very movement the verse says did not happen.

לִבְבָךְ

libbākh

GROWS FROM

לבב

l-b-b

the inward heart or center of the self

The heart here is the inward center, not only a passing emotion. What remains elevated is the self at its core, even while knowledge is already present.

ALSO GROWS

lēv: heart, inner center

לֵב

This related Hebrew form shows the shared Semitic word for the inward center named in Daniel.

ləvāḇ: heart, inner self

לְבַב

This fuller form carries the same root into the idea of the whole inward self whose stance remains unchanged.

יְדַעְתָּ

yəḏaʿtā

GROWS FROM

ידע

y-d-ʿ

to know, recognize, perceive

“knewest” in this verse is yəḏaʿtā. This root can name knowing through recognition or encounter. The verse’s ache is that even such knowing can sit beside a heart that will not lower itself.

ALSO GROWS

yāḏaʿ: to know, recognize

יָדַע

This related verb carries the same knowing named in Daniel.

daʿat: knowledge, understanding

דַּעַת

This noun shows the root’s reach into understanding, which the verse places beside an unlowered heart.

THE PATTERN

Knowledge that leaves the self exalted has not yet become wisdom; truth lowers the heart from its claim to stand above it.

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Proverbs 3:7 · KJVIt links self-estimation with refusing awe, showing how the heart can remain elevated even while it seeks wisdom.

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

1 Corinthians 8:1 · KJVIt names knowledge that inflates the self, the same split between knowing and being lowered that Daniel exposes.

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

James 4:6 · KJVIt places the humble in the lowly position where grace is received.

THE THREAD

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Isaiah 57:15 · KJV

Daniel’s Aramaic verb for “humbled” and Isaiah’s Hebrew word for “humble” share the root ⁨שפל⁩, the language of being low. Daniel shows knowing without lowering; Isaiah shows the lowly heart as the place where the high One dwells and revives.

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