What Does Daniel 9:10 Mean in the King James?
Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
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 Hebrew word rendered “obeyed” also means “heard,” and the verse measures that hearing by whether the life walks the instruction.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks from the distance between hearing the LORD’s voice and walking in its instruction. Its confession names a present human condition: the direction is heard, yet the steps may fail to follow it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing an instruction means you are already walking in it.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַעְנוּ
shama'nu
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, and respond.
The Hebrew verb carries both hearing and response, so what English renders as “obeyed” keeps the voice itself inside the confession. The next phrase makes that response visible as walking in instruction: the ear and the path belong together.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear, listen, respond.
שְׁמַע
This command form shows that hearing can include a response, as it does in this verse.
shemu'ah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the sense of receiving and carrying what is heard within the same root.
תּוֹרֹתָיו
torotav
GROWS FROM
ירה
y-r-h
To point or direct; in its teaching form, to instruct.
Alongside “laws,” תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction) carries the sense of teaching and direction. The verse places that instruction on a walk, where the voice takes shape as a path.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction or teaching.
תּוֹרָה
This is the singular form behind the plural “his instructions” in the verse.
moreh: A teacher, one who instructs.
מוֹרֶה
This branch links instruction with the one who points out or teaches a way.
לָלֶכֶת
lalechet
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
To walk or go.
“to walk” in this verse is lalechet. The word keeps physical movement inside a phrase that can sound abstract in English. Here, hearing and instruction converge in the direction a person walks: the path gives the teaching a lived form.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: To walk or go.
הָלַךְ
This verb is the movement named in the verse.
halikhah: Walking or conduct.
הֲלִיכָה
This noun carries the root’s movement into the way a person proceeds.
THE PATTERN
Hearing becomes visible as a path when instruction takes form in the way a person walks.
And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.Daniel’s “obeyed” is שָׁמַע (shama, hear and respond), the same root rendered “obey” here. Deuteronomy places that hearing beside walking, keeping, and serving, opening the movement Daniel names in a single confession.
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