What Does Daniel 12:7 Mean?
And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was upon the waters of the river, when he lifted his right hand and his left hand to the heavens, and swore by the one who lives for the ages, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half, and when the shattering of the hand of the set-apart people is spent, all these things shall run out.
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
And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.THE KEY
The verse makes the shattering of the set-apart people’s power the point at which the whole hidden sequence reaches its finish.
THE MEANING
The scene addresses you from inside a terrifying limit: the power of the set-apart people is shattered, and all these things reach their finish. The oath holds a measured span and its ending together while naming the violence plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that the set-apart people’s visible strength must survive for the promise to reach its end; the verse places the finish at the point where their power is shattered.
THE ROOT
נַפֵּץ
nappets
GROWS FROM
נפץ
To scatter or to shatter, break apart.
The Hebrew verb holds dispersal and violent breakage within the same root. The verse’s “scatter” carries the force of shattering the people’s power, making the violence part of the word itself.
ALSO GROWS
naftsah: Was spread or scattered.
נָפְצָה
This form describes the earth spreading out from Noah’s sons (Genesis 9:19), showing the root’s sense of dispersion.
anappets: I will shatter.
אֲנַפֵּץ
Jeremiah 51:20 uses this same root for breaking nations in pieces, confirming the destructive force carried by Daniel’s verb.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
To set apart, mark as distinct.
“Holy people” names a people marked as set apart. The shattering falls specifically upon those who bear that distinction.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; holy.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective describes the marked distinction carried by the people in the verse.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary shares the root, showing how the same idea of being set apart can name both a people and a place.
מוֹעֵד
mo'ed
GROWS FROM
יעד
To appoint or designate; to set a time or meeting.
“time” in this verse is mo'ed. The span is introduced as an appointed interval, then cut with “and a half.” The verse binds the crisis to a measure while leaving its ending violent and unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
ya'ad: To appoint or designate.
יָעַד
This verb carries the root’s sense of setting something for a designated time.
mo'ed: Appointed time; meeting.
מוֹעֵד
The word appears in the verse itself, presenting the duration as a set interval.
THE PATTERN
A violent interval has a boundary: its apparent dominion reaches an appointed finish.
He shall speak words against the Uplifted One, and wear out the set-apart ones of the Uplifted One, and think to change seasons and instruction. And they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the splitting of a time.They will fall by the mouth of the sword, and be led away captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the seasons of the nations are filled.But throw out the court that is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it is given to the nations, and they trample the set-apart city for forty-two months.THE THREAD
You are my battle-axe and my weapons of war, for with you I will smash the nations, and with you I will destroy kingdoms.Jeremiah uses the same נ־פ־ץ root when the battle axe shatters nations. The shared verb makes the rupture itself visible in both verses, while each names a different target of its violence.
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