Biblion Bible Commentary
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A Time, Times, and a Half
Daniel 12:5-10
5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on the river bank on this side, and the other on the river bank on that side. · WEB
The question is asked again by the river, answered under oath with both hands raised — and the prophet is told he will not understand, and that the wise will.
Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on the river bank on this side, and the other on the river bank on that side Daniel 12:5.
The staging repeats the earlier vision — two holy ones on either side of the water, and a question passed between them about how long, with Daniel listening Daniel 8:13. One said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, "How long will it be to the end of these wonders?" Daniel 12:6. The one addressed is the figure of chapter ten, in priestly linen Daniel 10:5, and he stands above the river rather than beside it.
I heard the man clothed in linen... when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever Daniel 12:7.
The answer is given under oath, and with both hands raised — an oath is normally sworn with one. Scripture reserves this gesture for the most solemn possible assurance Deuteronomy 32:40 Revelation 10:5–6, and it is offered here because what is being promised is a limit to the suffering of God's people. Heaven swears to the terminus.
That it will be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have finished breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things will be finished.
The same period as the horn's era in the earlier vision — a time and times and half a time Daniel 7:25, the span the last book of Scripture names as 1,260 days and 42 months as well Revelation 12:6 Revelation 12:14 Revelation 13:5, counted by the rule of a day for a year Numbers 14:34 Ezekiel 4:6. And its end is marked by an event rather than only by a number: when they have finished breaking in pieces the power of the holy people. The scattering of the saints' strength has a completion, and when it is complete the whole matter is complete.
I heard, but I didn't understand. Then I said, "My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?" Daniel 12:8.
The prophet admits it. He has received the greatest sequence of visions in the Old Testament and he does not understand the end of it — the same confession that closed chapter eight Daniel 8:27 — and he asks again anyway. Honest ignorance and continued inquiry: the book's own model of how to read it.
Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end Daniel 12:9.
And the answer is a kind refusal. Not you are unworthy — the words are sealed, and the sealing is not aimed at him Daniel 12:4. He is told to go his way, which is what he is told again at the very end Daniel 12:13. Some things are withheld from faithful people because the time is wrong, and Scripture says so elsewhere without apology Acts 1:7 Deuteronomy 29:29.
Many will purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined, but the wicked will do wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand Daniel 12:10.
The last word on who gets to read this book, and it is moral rather than intellectual. The refining of the wise had been promised in the previous chapter Daniel 11:35; here it continues, alongside a hardening — the wicked will do wickedly, the two directions running simultaneously to the end Revelation 22:11. And the division of understanding follows the division of character, not of cleverness: none of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand. The prophecy is not a puzzle that yields to ingenuity. It opens to the people it was written to make.
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