What Does Daniel 9:16 Mean in the King James?
O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
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 city’s name carries wholeness beneath its public reproach, and the prayer asks God’s righteousness to turn the heat away.
THE MEANING
This prayer speaks to the ache of seeing shared failure and inherited crookedness exposed as public contempt. It asks for God’s anger and fury to turn away from the community, appealing to God’s righteousness as the measure of that turning. Jerusalem is called God’s city and holy mountain even while it is named a reproach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Public disgrace means the community no longer belongs to God; the prayer still calls Jerusalem “thy city” and “thy holy mountain.”
THE ROOT
צִדְקֹתֶיךָ
tsidqotekha
GROWS FROM
צדק
צדק (ts-d-q) means to be just or right, to stand in alignment.
“righteousness” in this verse is tsidqotekha. The word belongs to a family of justice, right conduct, and the person who is just. Daniel’s appeal is for God’s right-making character to shape what happens to the city.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: justice, rightness
צֶדֶק
It shows that righteousness carries the sense of what is rightly aligned, not only a moral quality.
tsedaqah: righteousness, justice, just conduct
צְדָקָה
This branch brings rightness into action, illuminating the appeal for God’s character to act toward the city.
tsaddiq: a just or righteous person
צַדִּיק
It shows the root can describe one who embodies justice, as well as the quality of justice itself.
חֲטָאֵינוּ
chata'einu
GROWS FROM
חטא
חטא (ḥ-t-ʾ) means to miss, err, or fail to reach a mark.
“sins” in this verse is chata'einu. The verse names these as “our missings,” a shared failure laid openly beside the crookedness of those who came before. The root frames failure as a departure from a way or mark, not as the whole nature of the people.
ALSO GROWS
chata: to miss, err, fail
חָטָא
The verb makes the image active: the people have missed a mark, and the prayer names that plainly.
chatta't: missing, sin; an offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
This related form shows how the language can name both the failure and the response that addresses it.
chote: one who misses or errs
חֹטֵא
The root describes an action and its doer, without making the failure the person’s only identity.
יְרוּשָׁלַם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
שלם (sh-l-m, shalem) means to be complete or whole, or to bring something to wholeness.
Jerusalem’s name carries the consonants שלם, the family of שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness). The verse holds that wholeness in the name while the city stands in public reproach.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, peace
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch makes the wholeness carried in Jerusalem’s name visible.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It gives the root’s basic sense directly: the city’s name holds the language of completeness.
shillem: to repay, make good
שִׁלֵּם
This branch extends wholeness into making good what is damaged, echoing the plea for the city’s condition to change.
THE PATTERN
Failure can be named plainly while a plea for restoration rests on God’s character.
Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:Both passages carry צדק (ts-d-q, justice or rightness): Daniel’s צִדְקֹתֶיךָ (tsidqotekha, your righteousness) and Nehemiah’s צַדִּיק (tsaddiq, just). Each names the people’s wrongdoing plainly while appealing to the justice of the one addressed.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us