What Does Daniel 7:25 Mean?
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.
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 he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.THE KEY
The power in this verse tries to wear the set-apart down by taking control of time and order.
THE MEANING
The verse names a power that speaks against the Most High, wears the set-apart down, and reaches to alter the measures of time and the ordering of life. Its authority has an endpoint: the hand that holds them does so only for a measured span.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that relentless pressure means the oppressor owns the future. The verse puts a limit around that hand and its time.
THE ROOT
יְבַלֵּא
yeballēʾ
GROWS FROM
בלא
To wear out, consume, or exhaust.
“wear out” in this verse is yeballēʾ. This verb names attrition: the work of consuming strength through sustained pressure. Its Hebrew cognate בלה carries the same wear-out sense, linking the attack to depletion over time.
ALSO GROWS
bālāh: To wear out, grow old.
בָּלָה
A Hebrew cognate in the same wear-out family, with final ה corresponding to Aramaic א.
bālūy: Worn out, threadbare.
בָּלוּי
A Hebrew derivative of that cognate root names the depleted condition the verb produces.
קַדִּישֵׁי
qaddishē
GROWS FROM
קדש
To set apart, designate as sacred.
“saints” in this verse is qaddishē. The ones being worn down are named by their relation to the Most High: they are the set-apart ones. The verse holds the attempt to exhaust them beside an identity the oppressor does not define.
ALSO GROWS
qaddīsh: Set apart; holy.
קַדִּישׁ
The Aramaic adjective names the quality carried by the people called saints.
qādōsh: Set apart; holy.
קָדוֹשׁ
The Hebrew cognate preserves the same root and shows that this identity is set-apartness.
THE PATTERN
Oppressive power tries to exhaust the set-apart through sustained burdens and control of their time, while its reach remains bounded.
Let the work weigh heavier on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not look at lying words.And it is given to him to fight with the set-apart ones and to overcome them, and authority is given to him over every kindred, and tongue, and nation.And if those days are not cut short, no flesh is delivered, but for the sake of the picked-out ones, those days are cut short.THE THREAD
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.Daniel 12:7 repeats the Aramaic time-word עִדָּן (iddān, time) and the same measure of a time, times, and half a time, then says the scattering of the holy people reaches its endpoint. The shared wording reveals the oppression as a bounded interval, not an unmeasured duration.
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