What Does Daniel 12:4 Mean?
But you, Daniel, stop up the words, and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall multiply.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.THE KEY
The verse places increasing knowledge beside sealed words, revealing that more can be known while some things remain beyond reach.
THE MEANING
Some words remain sealed until their appointed boundary. Meanwhile, many range through what can be known, and understanding grows. The verse holds growth and incompletion together: more can be known without everything being open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that increasing knowledge means nothing remains hidden.
THE ROOT
הַדָּעַת
hadda'at
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“knowledge” in this verse is hadda'at. This noun grows from yada, a word that can describe knowing through encounter, not only collecting information. The increase here can hold deeper recognition alongside the growth of what is learned.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
The same verb describes Adam knowing Eve (Genesis 4:1), showing that this root can name personal encounter as well as knowing facts.
madda: Knowledge, learning, or science.
מַדָּע
Daniel 1:4 uses this related word for knowledge that can be taught and learned, showing the root’s reach includes acquired understanding too.
יְשֹׁטְטוּ
yeshotetu
GROWS FROM
שוט
sh-w-ṭ
To roam or move about.
“run to and fro” in this verse is yeshotetu. The verb can describe searching movement, not only travel from place to place. The verse puts that roaming beside growing knowledge, making motion through the field of understanding part of the picture.
ALSO GROWS
shoteṭ: To roam or run to and fro.
שׁוֹטֵט
Amos uses this verb for people searching for the word of the LORD, so the motion can carry the sense of seeking.
meshoteṭim: Roving about.
מְשׁוֹטְטִים
Zechariah uses this form for the LORD’s eyes moving through the earth, showing the verb can describe attention surveying a field.
וַחֲתֹם
waḥatom
GROWS FROM
חתם
ḥ-t-m
To seal or close with a seal.
A seal closes and marks what is being held. Here the book remains bounded until its appointed time, even as searching and knowing increase.
ALSO GROWS
ḥotam: A seal or signet.
חוֹתָם
The related noun shows the mark that secures what is sealed, giving the closure a sense of something held in place.
ḥatum: Sealed or closed.
חָתוּם
This form names the resulting state: the book’s words are held closed until the time named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
What is sealed remains under an appointed boundary, while understanding can grow before that boundary opens.
And the appearance of the evenings and the mornings, which has been spoken, is true. And you, seal up the vision, for it is for many days.For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and at the end it will breathe and not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it. Because it will surely come, it will not stay behind.And he says to me, Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this scroll, for the season is at hand.THE THREAD
And they shall stagger from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and they shall not find it.Amos uses the same roving verb for searching for the word of the LORD, so Daniel’s movement can carry the sense of seeking as well as travel. Amos leaves the search unsettled: motion can continue without finding, keeping increased knowledge distinct from complete access.
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