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NASB | Daniel 2:22 "It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Daniel 2:22 "It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. [Job 15:8; Ps 25:14; Matt 6:6] |
Bible Question:
Reference Isaiah 50:10, post #33229. In this previous post I had considered capitalizing "Light" for Daniel 2:22 because I believe that Jesus claimed to be the Light of the world. However, this does not need to be the interpretation for there is in the verse the contrast of darkness and light. What I have "penciled in" for my personal copy is a combination of the NKJ translation for verse 23a and the NASB translation for 23b. So here is my interpretation/translation for what it is worth. Daniel 2:22, "It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. 23 I thank Thee and praise Thee, O God of my fathers, For Thou has given me wisdom and power; Even now Thou hast made known to me what we requested of Thee, For Thou hast made known to us the king's matter." Comments from any Hebrew scholar or more reference verses would be appreciated. From the heart, Ray |
Bible Answer: I'm no Hebrew scholar except in the very broadest sense of the word -- and then only if you included kindergarteners, too! :-) But I'll give it a shot since you're asking. The word "dwells" ("sheray") comes from a Chaldee root which means to loose or unbind, or solve as in "hard questions" (Dan 5:16). Apparently it was associated with people unbinding the loads from their pack animals at the point of their arrival. So, what is being said here is that light abides with God, and that this abiding with God is its appropriate place. God is surrounded by this light that uncovers truth. No doubt this is part of what is meant by "light" in Acts 26:18, 2 Corinthians 4:4, and 1 John 1:5. The word "light" ("neh-heree") means, as one would expect, illumination. However, it also figuratively means wisdom. If you are going to make it mean Jesus Christ in the sense that you would like it to mean, then you have two problems. 1. You will need to make it mean the same thing in all of the passages where it is used by the same author. The word "neh-heree" also appears in Daniel 5:11 and 5:14. 2. Perhaps the more difficult problem, however, is that in this verse (Daniel 2:2) the word "darkness" is used in an equivalent fashion. So you will also have to personalize it as well. (Fortunately, this last word only appears once in Daniel (or anywhere else) so you won't have the consequential task of personalizing any other references to darkness.) You might want to work on the Hebrew word "ore" instead. But you still have a difficult task. The New Testament was written in the light (excuse the pun) of the Old. Frankly, I don't find the metaphor of God (or Christ) as "the Light" used quite in the way in which you hope. One must be careful not to push the interpretation of a passage beyond the intent of the original writer. On the other hand, keep digging at it. It is an interesting idea. Perhaps you will uncover a new observation. In Him, Doc |