This Aramaic noun appears in Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great tree, where 'the sentence is by the decree of the watchers' and 'the decision by the word of the holy ones.' The term emphasizes authoritative determination—decisions made in the heavenly council that will certainly be executed on earth. Related to the verb for cutting or deciding, the decree represents a binding judgment that has been pronounced and will be implemented. In Daniel's apocalyptic context, these decrees reveal that earthly kingdoms rise and fall according to heaven's determinations, not merely human politics.