Daniel 12: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The one speaking finishes telling Daniel about a coming time of trouble, when Michael will rise up and the people whose names are written in the book will be rescued, and many who sleep in the dust will wake, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame. Daniel is told to seal up the words until the time of the end. He then sees two figures beside a river, and one of them asks a man dressed in linen how long these things will take, and the answer is given in set periods of time. Daniel says he does not understand, and he is told to go his way, rest, and rise to his share at the end of the days.

Claim by Claim

1. 12:1
   • At that time Michael will stand up.
   • Michael is the great prince.
   • Michael stands over the children of Daniel's people.
   • There will be a time of trouble.
   • That time of trouble will be such as has never happened since there was a nation until that time.
   • At that time Daniel's people will be delivered.
   • Everyone found written in the book will be delivered.
2. 12:2
   • Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake.
   • Some of them will awake to everlasting life.
   • Some of them will awake to shame and everlasting contempt.
3. 12:3
   • Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament.
   • Those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.
4. 12:4
   • Daniel is told to shut up the words.
   • Daniel is told to seal the book until the time of the end.
   • Many will run to and fro.
   • Knowledge will be increased.
5. 12:5
   • Daniel looked.
   • Daniel saw two others standing.
   • One of them stood on this bank of the river.
   • The other stood on the other bank of the river.
6. 12:6
   • One of them spoke to the man clothed in linen.
   • The man clothed in linen was above the waters of the river.
   • The speaker asked how long it would be to the end of these wonders.
7. 12:7
   • Daniel heard the man clothed in linen.
   • The man clothed in linen was above the waters of the river.
   • The man raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven.
   • The man swore by him who lives forever.
   • The man said it would be for a time, times, and half a time.
   • The man said that when the scattering of the power of the holy people is finished, all these things will be finished.
8. 12:8
   • Daniel heard.
   • Daniel did not understand.
   • Daniel asked his lord what the end of these things would be.
9. 12:9
   • He told Daniel to go his way.
   • He said the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.
10. 12:10
    • Many will be purified.
    • Many will be made white.
    • Many will be refined.
    • The wicked will act wickedly.
    • None of the wicked will understand.
    • The wise will understand.
11. 12:11
    • The daily sacrifice will be taken away.
    • The abomination that makes desolate will be set up.
    • From that time there will be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12. 12:12
    • Blessed is the one who waits and reaches the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
13. 12:13
    • Daniel is told to go his way until the end.
    • Daniel will rest.
    • Daniel will stand in his lot at the end of the days.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

12:1

Michael appears earlier in Daniel (chapters 10 and 12) as a heavenly figure assigned to Israel; "prince" here means a commander or guardian, not a royal heir. "The book" is the image of a king's register, a list of citizens or of the living kept at court. To be written in it is to be counted among those who belong.

12:2

"Sleep in the dust of the earth" is ordinary Hebrew idiom for being dead and buried; the dust is the grave. The word behind "many" can mean either a large number out of a larger whole, or the whole multitude itself, and Hebrew readers could take it either way. "Contempt" translates a rare word meaning something people turn away from in revulsion.

12:3

The "firmament" of the King James is the sky pictured as a solid vault or dome stretched over the earth, the way the ancient world imagined it. "Turn many to righteousness" uses courtroom language: to put people in the right, or to lead them to live rightly.

12:4

Documents in this period were written on scrolls, rolled up, tied, and stamped with clay or wax bearing the owner's seal, so that tampering would show. Sealing a text meant closing it against use until an authorized time. The phrase rendered "go here and there" is disputed: the verb can mean to roam physically, or to range over a text searching it, so the line may mean people will travel widely or that they will search the words for meaning.

12:5

The river is the Tigris, named in chapter 10, where this vision began.

12:6

Linen was the fabric of priestly dress, worn for service in the temple; a figure clothed in linen is being marked as belonging to the holy sphere. This is the same figure who appeared to Daniel in chapter 10.

12:7

An oath was normally sworn with one hand raised; raising both doubles the gesture, making the oath as solemn as it can be. Swearing "by him that liveth for ever" invokes God as the witness who guarantees it. "A time, times, and half a time" is deliberately vague counting, one unit, then a plural, then a half, most naturally read as three and a half of something, usually taken as years. "The holy people" means the people set apart for God, that is, Israel.

12:8

"My lord" is a respectful address to a superior, the same word one would use to a human master; Daniel is speaking to the figure in linen, not directly to God.

12:10

The three verbs come from metalworking. Ore was heated until the impurities separated out and could be skimmed off, leaving the metal clean and bright. Applied to people it describes being tested by hardship until what is false in them is burned away, an image also used in Zechariah 13:9 and Malachi 3:3.

12:11

The "daily sacrifice" was the offering burned in the Jerusalem temple every morning and evening without fail; stopping it meant the temple's regular worship had been shut down. The "abomination that maketh desolate" translates a phrase for something detestable set up in the sanctuary that drives worshipers away and leaves the place empty, Daniel uses it three times (chapters 9, 11, and here).

12:12

The two figures differ by forty-five days; the text gives no explanation for the gap, and it calls the one who holds out to the longer number blessed.

12:13

"Stand in thy lot" uses the language of land distribution: when Israel entered Canaan the territory was divided by casting lots, and each family received its allotted share. To stand in your lot is to take up the portion assigned to you. "You will rest" is a common way of saying you will die.