What Does Daniel 6:15 Mean in the King James?
Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed.
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 decree’s supposed unchangeability becomes a weapon that binds the king who issued it.
THE MEANING
A written rule can become a boundary around the very authority that sets it. Here, the men use its permanence to leave the king no room to change the outcome. The verse shows how a claim of unchangeable order can become leverage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Power can always exempt itself from the rules it makes.
THE ROOT
לְהַשְׁנָיָה
lehashnaya
GROWS FROM
שׁנא
Change, alter (Aramaic root שׁ־נ־א).
“changed” in this verse is lehashnaya. The decree is described with the very verb for alteration, then declared beyond it. The claim is not merely that the rule lasts; it is that no one may perform the act of changing it.
ALSO GROWS
ishtanni: was changed
אִשְׁתַּנִּי
In Daniel 3:19, the same root describes a countenance changing; it names an actual alteration, the very act barred here.
shinnōhi: his countenance changed
שִׁנּוֹהִי
Daniel 5:6 uses the same root for a visible change in the king’s face, showing that the verb applies to concrete shifts as well as decrees.
lehashnaya: to change
לְהַשְׁנָיָה
Daniel 7:25 uses this same form for changing times and laws, directly echoing the alteration prohibited in this verse.
רְשַׁם
resham
GROWS FROM
רשם
To inscribe or sign (Aramaic root ר־שׁ־ם).
“establisheth” in this verse is resham. The king’s act carries the sense of marking a rule in writing, as well as establishing it. The decree’s authority is bound to an inscription bearing the king’s mark.
ALSO GROWS
reshim: signed
רְשִׁים
Daniel 6:10 uses this form for the writing that has been signed, tying the rule’s force to its written mark.
reshamta: you signed
רְשַׁמְתָּ
Daniel 6:13 addresses the king as the one who signed the decree, making his own mark part of the constraint now invoked against him.
קְרִבוּ
qerivu
GROWS FROM
קרב
To draw near, approach (Aramaic root ק־ר־ב; cognate with Hebrew קרב).
The verb translated “assembled” also carries the sense of approaching or drawing near. The men’s physical approach brings their claim close to the king, turning the decree into pressure at his own seat of authority.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: near
קָרוֹב
This Hebrew cognate shares the root consonants and makes the nearness in the men’s approach audible.
qorban: something brought near; an offering
קָרְבָּן
This Hebrew cognate shares the root and its movement toward nearness, echoing the men who draw near to present their demand.
THE PATTERN
When a written rule is treated as irrevocable, it can bind even the authority that set it.
Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse.Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.THE THREAD
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.Daniel 7:25 uses the same Aramaic root for changing times and laws. Here, that alteration is forbidden to the king’s decree; there, the attempt to change times and laws marks a contest over power.
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