Daniel 10:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 10:16
And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.
resemblance · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
sons
בְּנֵ֣יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
men
אָדָ֔ם'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
touched
נֹגֵ֖עַno.Ge.a'
H5060
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
lips
שְׂפָתָ֑יse.fa.Tai
H8193
the lip (as a natural boundary) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
opened
וָאֶפְתַּחva.'ef.tach-
H6605
to open wide (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
mouth
פִּ֗יPi
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
spake
וָאֲדַבְּרָה֙va.'a.da.be.Rah
H1696
perhaps properly · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular + paragogic he
said
וָאֹֽמְרָה֙va.'o.me.Rah
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular + paragogic he
stood
הָעֹמֵ֣דha.'o.Med
H5975
to stand · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
lord
אֲדֹנִ֗י'a.do.Ni
H113
sovereign · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
vision
בַּמַּרְאָה֙ba.mar.'Ah
H4759
a vision · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
sorrows
צִירַי֙tzi.Rai
H6735
a hinge (as pressed in turning) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
turned
נֶהֶפְכ֤וּne.hef.Khu
H2015
to turn about or over · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
retained
עָצַ֖רְתִּי'a.Tzar.ti
H6113
to inclose · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
strength
כֹּֽחַKo.ach
H3581
vigor · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 6:7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
Daniel 8:15 And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appe…
Jeremiah 1:9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Daniel 7:15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.
Daniel 7:28 Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matte…
Daniel 8:17 So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at…
Daniel 8:27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but n…
Revelation 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps wi…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 10:10–end
Much ado here is to bring Daniel to be able to bear what Christ has to say to him. Still we have him in a fright, hardly and very slowly recovering himself; but he is still answered and supported with good words and comfortable words. Let us see how Daniel is by degrees brought to himself, and gather up the several passages that are to the same purport.
I. Daniel is in a great consternation and finds it very difficult to get clear of it. The hand that touched him set him at first upon his knees and the palms of his hands, Dan 10:10. Note, Strength and comfort commonly come by degrees to those that have been long cast down and disquieted; they are first helped up a little, and then more. Afte…
touched my lips--the same significant action wherewith the Son of man accompanied His healing of the dumb (Mar 7:33). He alone can give spiritual utterance (Isa 6:6-7; Eph 6:19), enabling one to "open the mouth boldly." The same one who makes dumb (Dan 10:15) opens the mouth.
sorrows--literally, "writhings" as of a woman in travail.
Adam Clarke on Daniel 10:16
Like the similitude of the sons of men - I think Gabriel is here meant, who appeared to Daniel in a human form; and so in Dan 10:18, and see also Dan 9:21.
Touched my lips - Before this he was unable to speak.
By the vision - The vision that I have already had, and of which I have not a proper knowledge has greatly afflicted me, because I see it intimates grievous calamities to my people. See Dan 9:26.
John Gill on Daniel 10:16
And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men,.... Not the man clothed with linen, or Christ; but either the same angel, Gabriel, who appeared more manifestly to him in a human form; or another of the attendants of Christ, who also had the similitude of a man:
touched my lips; with his hand, as the Prophet Isaiah's were, by a seraph, with a live coal from the altar, Isaiah 6:7, thereby restoring him to his speech, and giving him freedom and boldness to make use of it; and removing from him his impurity, and a sense of it, which occasioned his silence:
then I opened my mouth, and spake freely, and yet with all becoming modesty:
and said unto him that stood before me, O lord; the…
The Church Fathers
"Like the Son of man." He foresees the incarnation of the Only Begotten and calls him the Son of man, the one who was to be born of holy Mary and made human. "And my insides churned." Since life is compared with a wheel, the one who lives among the saints, that is, the soul being directed in this life, ought to leave behind the evils here below and ought to bring up good things, that is, good deeds, from the earthly realm to the sublime and heavenly.
Verse 16. "O my lord, at the sight of thee my joints are loosed..." Theodotion interprets it this way, in accordance with what we read in the One Hundred and Second Psalm: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." (Psalm 103:1) For our inward nature must direct its gaze without, before we deserve to behold a vision of God; and when we actually have beheld a vision of God, then our inward nature is converted within us and we become wholly of the number of those concerning whom it is written in another Psalm: "All the glory of the daughter of kings is within, in golden borders" (Psalm 45:13).
Let those Anomoeans listen who, out of curiosity, are investigating into the essence of the Lord of angels. Daniel, to whom the eyes of the lions showed reverence, Daniel, who had a more than human power in his human body, could not endure the presence of his fellow servant but lay on the ground before the angel and could not breathe. For he said, "My bowels were turned within me at what I saw, and no breath was left in me." But these Anomoeans, who are so far removed from the virtue of that just man, profess to know with all exactness the highest and first of essences, the very essence of God, who has created myriads of these angels. And yet Daniel did not have the strength to look on a single one of them.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Daniel 10:16-18
16. And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.
16. Et ecce secundum similitudinem filiorum hominis, [143] tetgit labia mea, et aperui os meum, et loquutus sum; et dixi ad eum qui stabat ad conspectum meum, [144] Domine, in visione conversi sunt dolores mei super me, et non continui robur.
17. For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.
17. Et quomodo poterit servus D…
In these verses it is further related how Daniel was gradually raised up and made capable of receiving the revelation of God. The communication of the angel hitherto had not fully gained this object. Daniel "stood trembling," but he could not yet speak. With his face bent towards the earth he was as yet speechless. Then one having the likeness of a man touched his lips, whereby he received the power of speech, and could address him who stood before him, and utter the complaint: "By the vision anguish, i.e., violent terror, has fallen upon me: woes are turned upon me." For this style of speech cf. Sa1 4:19, and for the matter itself, cf. Isa 21:3; Isa 13:8. For the following כּח עצרתּי ולא (a…
my joints turned upon me Heb. צִירַי. These are the ends of the bones, all the limbs that are thrust into their sockets and turn within them like a door on its hinge in the socket of the threshold. My joints turned to become dislocated from their place out of much trembling and quaking.
