Daniel 11:35 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 11:35
And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.
to be (or become) white · conjunction + preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
time
עֵ֣ת'et
H6256
time · noun, common both genders singular construct
end
קֵ֑ץKetz
H7093
an extremity · noun, common masculine singular absolute
appointed
לַמּוֹעֵֽדla.mo.'Ed
H4150
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall…
Malachi 3:2-4 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
Revelation 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,…
Proverbs 17:3 The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.
Revelation 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall…
Daniel 12:10-11 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise s…
1 Peter 1:6-7 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 11:21–end
All this is a prophecy of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, the little horn spoken of before (Dan 8:9) a sworn enemy to the Jewish religion, and a bitter persecutor of those that adhered to it. What troubles the Jews met with in the reigns of the Persian kings were not so particularly foretold to Daniel as these, because then they had living prophets with them, Haggai and Zechariah, to encourage them; but these troubles in the days of Antiochus were foretold, because, before that time, prophecy would cease, and they would find it necessary to have recourse to the written word. Some things in this prediction concerning Antiochus are alluded to in the New Testament predictions of the antichris…
to try them--the design of affliction. Image from metals tried with fire.
to purge--Even in the elect there are dregs which need to be purged out (Pe1 1:7). Hence they are allowed to fall for a time; not finally (Ch2 32:31; Luk 22:31). Image from wheat cleared of its chaff by the wind.
make . . . white--image from cloth (Rev 7:9).
to . . . time of . . . end--God will not suffer His people to be persecuted without limitation (Co1 10:13). The godly are to wait patiently for "the end" of "the time" of trial; "for it is (to last) yet for a time appointed" by God.
Adam Clarke on Daniel 11:35
And some of them of understanding - Disputes on certain points of religion soon agitated the Christian Church; and now, having no outward persecution, they began to persecute each other. And many excellent men, men of understanding, fell victims because they would not embrace erroneous doctrines, when professed by the state. But this was permitted: -
To try them, and to purge, and to make them white - To bring all to the pure profession, possession, and practice of Christianity.
To the time of the end - To the time that God shall cause pure and undefiled religion every where to prevail. But when is the time appointed for this?
John Gill on Daniel 11:35
And some of them of understanding shall fall,.... Not into sin, or from the religion they profess; and the doctrines they have an understanding of, and have instructed others in; but into distresses and calamities for their steadfast adherence to the word, worship, and ordinances of God:
to try them, and purge and make them white; to try their faith, patience, and other graces, and whether they would hold fast their profession, and persevere in the good ways of God; and to purge and separate them from others, that were like chaff, hypocrites, that so they might be manifest, both the one and the other; and these good men appear to be sincere and upright: moreover, the best of men have their…
The Church Fathers
Daniel gave the reason why God permitted them to be involved in such trials. What is the reason? "To purge them, to choose them and to make them white until the time of the end" … so as to cleanse them and to show who among them was genuine and approved.
When the priests, who give scandal, that is, the wise ones with regard to evil … are overturned and fall, they will become a furnace of testing before everybody's eyes, and it will be recognized that because of their evil actions punishment has come over them and more evils are forthcoming. "And may understand until the time of the end," that is, everybody will consider and understand, with regard to the evils that will befall them, that they come according to justice until the time of the end, because evilness has "still an interval" to gain its successes.
Many of those who seem to be godly will turn to the other direction. "So that they may be refined." … These things will not harm the people of this time; they will learn not to have confidence in their previous successes.… For the vicissitudes in the situation will purify them as if by fire and test them and will separate the false from the tried and true.… These things take place partly in the present life, but in the time to come a complete testing of the people will occur. Once he said these things concerning Antiochus Epiphanes, he changes the remainder of the passage from the type to the archetype.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Syria · Prophecies respecting: Its history in connection with the Macedonia empire — Prophecies respecting: Its history in connection with the Macedonia empire
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Daniel 11:35
35. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.
35. Et ex intelligentibus cadent ad probandum [182] in ipsis, [183] et mundandos, [184] et dealbandos usque ad tempus finis, id est, finitum, quoniam adhuc usque ad praefixum tempus.
The angel pursues the same sentiment as before shewing us how the children of God, in their eagerness to defend the cause of piety, should be subject to many grievous persecutions. Some of the learned shall fall; meaning, that calamity shall not be for a single moment only; for those who earnestly desired to defend the true worsh…
The consequences to the people of Israel which result from this sin against the holy covenant. - The ungodly shall become heathen, i.e., shall wholly apostatize from the true God; but, on the other hand, the pious shall be strengthened in their confidence in the Lord. This is in general the import of Dan 11:32, the first half of which, however, has been very differently interpreted. בּרית מרשׁיעי signifies neither "those who sinfully make a covenant" (Hvernick), nor "sinners among the covenant people" (v. Lengerke), nor "those who condemn the covenant," i.e., those who reject the sign of the covenant, circumcision (Hitzig). The latter meaning is altogether arbitrary. Against the second is th…
A little help came when the family of Mattathias and those around them, who were called Maccabees, instigated a national revolt which Antiochus, occupied elsewhere, could not put down. In 164 BC, three years after the Temple had been desecrated, the Maccabees recaptured Jerusalem, removed the sacrilegious object (the statue of Zeus), cleansed the altar, and restored the daily sacrifices (8:11-14, 26; 1 Maccabees 1:59). This event is commemorated at Hanukkah (see John 10:22).
Rashi on Daniel 11:35
will stumble to clarify some of them They will stumble in the calculations of the end, for they will put their mind to refine them and to resolve them to know them, but they will err concerning them.
