Daniel 12:4

The closing injunction to Daniel.

shut up, &c. The injunction is similar to that in Daniel 8:26.

until the time of the end i.e. (Daniel 8:17) the time of Antiochus" persecution, regarded from the standpoint of Daniel himself. The words are meant to explain why the visions in the book, though communicated to Daniel, were not made generally known until the time of the persecution. Cf. on Daniel 8:26; and contrast Revelation 22:10.

many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased A famous passage, prefixed by Bacon in its Latin form (Multi pertransibunt, et multiplex erit scientia) to the first edition of his Novum Organum, and interpreted by him (1. 93) as signifying that the complete exploration of the world (pertransitus mundi), which seemed to him to be then on the point of accomplishment, would coincide with great discoveries in science (augmenta scientiarum). This explanation of the words is, however, unhappily, too foreign to their context to be probable. But it must be admitted that the words are enigmatic. The verb rendered run to and frooccurs elsewhere, Jeremiah 5:1; Amos 8:12 (of literal movement hither and thither); Zec 4:10, 2 Chronicles 16:9 (of Jehovah's eyes, present in every part of the earth); and the sense generally given to the passage is that many willthen run to and froin the book, i.e. diligently explore and study it, andso the knowledgeof God's providential purposes, to be obtained from it, how, for instance, He tries, but at the same time rewards, His own faithful servants, and how the course of human history leads ultimately to the establishment of His kingdom, will be increased.

The text, it must be owned, is open to suspicion. Prof. Bevan making a slight change (הרעת for הדעת), in a sense suggested by the LXX., obtains the rendering -many shall run to and fro (viz. in distraction), and evils(calamities) shall be increased," i.e. the revelation is to remain concealed, because there is to ensue a long period of commotion and distress. For the thought of the emended clause, he compares Malachi 1:9; Malachi 1:9 (of the wars and other troubles brought upon the world by the Seleucidae and the Ptolemies) -and they multiplied evilsin the earth."