What Does Daniel 9:12 Mean in the King James?
And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
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 word behind “confirmed” means to make stand: the warning becomes a reality the people must bear.
THE MEANING
This verse places you before the weight of words that stand as lived consequence. It names Jerusalem’s devastation as unmatched beneath the whole heaven, without reducing the harm to a figure of speech.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that divine words can remain weightless warnings: here, the words stand as catastrophe.
THE ROOT
וַיָּקֶם
wayyaqem
GROWS FROM
קום
To rise, stand, or be established; in this form, to cause something to stand or establish it.
“confirmed” in this verse is wayyaqem. The Hebrew verb pictures the words standing up in reality. What was spoken is no longer only speech; it takes form as the calamity the people endure.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root’s basic image: the words stand as lived consequence.
heqim: Raise up or establish.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows how the root can describe making a word or covenant stand.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name carries the sound and sense of shalom, wholeness. The verse holds that name beside devastation so vast that the place named for wholeness bears unmatched harm.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness or well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch makes the contrast between Jerusalem’s name and the ruin upon it especially sharp.
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
The same root’s sense of completeness gives depth to the verse’s account of what has been shattered.
רָעָה
raʿah
GROWS FROM
רעע
To be harmful or bad; the word can name evil or calamity.
Here רָעָה (raʿah) names a calamity borne by a community, not merely a person’s moral defect. “Great evil” stays concrete in the verse: immense harm upon Jerusalem.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad, evil, or harmful.
רַע
This related form carries the sense of harm that the verse names as a great calamity.
roaʿ: Harm or evil.
רֹעַ
This noun keeps the root’s emphasis on what damages, clarifying the force of what is brought upon the people.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word that is established becomes visible in what unfolds.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.THE THREAD
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.The Hebrew behind “I will establish” and “he hath confirmed” shares the root קום (qum), meaning to stand or establish. In Genesis a covenant is made to stand; here words stand as devastating consequence, showing how the same root makes establishment concrete.
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