ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – GROUND UP – PALAK פלכ
Daniel 6:16: “The king spake and said unto Daniel: “Thy God whom thou serves continually, He will deliver you.”
This portion of the Book of Daniel was written in Aramaic which is very difficult to translate into another language. There are many variations we can use in arriving at an equivalent word in the English language for many Aramaic words. The writer uses a strange word for serve. The word in Aramaic is palak which in a noun form means a millstone. In its verbal form it means to grind or cut up into pieces. It is possible that what King Darius is referring to is Daniel’s fanaticism, the God that you have grinded yourself up into.
Then he adds the noun bor which has the prefix Beth which is the preposition for on or in and the suffix Aleph which is a definite article the. It means a circle or to dwell within the circle. What King Darius could possibly be referencing is that Daniel has allowed God to grind him up into His little circle that there was no hope of his seeing any other way. There was just no possible way that Daniel would serve any other God.
But then he adds something very enlightening. He says that God will deliver him. The Aramaic word used here is shazav which means to rescue or deliver, but it is a deliverance made out of love and affection. King Darius is saying that if your God loves you so much, He will not let you suffer this fate. Oh, but there is more embedded in this word. It is in a Piel Imperfect form. Hebrew does not have a reflexive form for the Piel stem, but Aramaic does. The Piel is a combination Piel (Intensive) and Hithapael (reflexive). What King Darius is saying, if we are true to the grammatical form of this word is: “The God that you have totally committed yourself to will deliver you to protect Himself. In others, it would be major embarrassment to God if he does not rescue you from these lions.