How can someone like me, your servant, talk to you, my lord? My strength is gone, and I can hardly breathe.”
Parallel translations
- WEB For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, immediately there remained no strength in me, neither was there breath left in me.
- KJV 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.
- BSB How can I, your servant, speak with you, my lord? Now I have no strength, nor is any breath left in me.”
- NKJV For how can this servant of my lord talk with you, my lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me.”
- NASB For how can such a servant of my lord talk with such as my lord? As for me, there remains just now no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Daniel feels utterly unable to speak with his glorious visitor, having no strength or breath left. He confesses his complete helplessness before heaven's messenger.
Overview
Daniel's words echo the universal human condition before God: we have no standing or strength of our own. Yet his very weakness becomes the occasion for fresh grace and strengthening. This anticipates the gospel truth that God's power is made perfect in weakness, and that we approach Him not in our own merit but by His enabling mercy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Exod 24:10–11They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness.
- Isa 6:1–5In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
- Judg 13:21–23But Yahweh’s angel didn’t appear to Manoah or to his wife any more. Then Manoah knew that he was Yahweh’s angel.
- John 1:18No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
- Gen 32:20You shall say, ‘Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’” For, he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”
- Judg 6:22Gideon saw that he was Yahweh’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen Yahweh’s angel face to face!”
- Matt 22:43–44He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,
- Exod 33:20He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.”
- Mark 12:36For David himself said in the Holy Spirit, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.”’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Daniel sees the stone cut without hands that shatters the kingdoms, and 'one like a son of man' given everlasting dominion — titles and visions Jesus claims as his own.
How Daniel 10:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.