What Does Daniel 8:13 Mean?
And I heard a set-apart one speaking, and a set-apart one said to a certain one who was speaking, "How long is the vision of the continual and the rebellion that lays waste, giving both the set-apart place and the army to be trampled?"
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
Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?THE KEY
The question makes duration visible: even when trampling is continual, what is set apart remains distinct from the force pressing it down.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader language for the moment when what is set apart and the gathered host are underfoot: the harm is named as desolation, not mistaken for ordinary life. It asks how long the continual sacrifice and the destructive rupture will keep this pressure in place. The sanctuary and host remain distinct from the force trampling them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that persistent oppression must be permanent or rightful: the verse asks “How long?” precisely where the trampling has become continual.
THE ROOT
מִרְמָס
mirmās trampling
GROWS FROM
רמס
r-m-s
to trample or tread underfoot
“to be trampled” in this verse is mirmās trampling. English gives the action, but מִרְמָס is a noun: the sanctuary and host are made into what is trampled, pressed beneath another’s power. It describes a condition imposed on them, not their identity.
ALSO GROWS
rāmas: to trample, tread underfoot
רָמַס
This verb names the force enacted against the sanctuary and host.
mirmās: trampling; a thing or place trampled
מִרְמָס
This noun makes the image a condition they are made to endure.
מִקְדָּשׁ
miqdāš sanctuary
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
to set apart, make distinct
“set-apart one” in this verse is miqdāš sanctuary. The sanctuary is a place marked as set apart. Its trampling describes an assault on what is distinguished, without making the pressure its defining nature.
ALSO GROWS
qōdeš: set-apartness; what is set apart
קֹדֶשׁ
This is the quality the sanctuary carries even while it is trampled.
qādôš: set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
The related adjective shows the shared root behind the sanctuary’s distinct character.
הַפֶּשַׁע
ha-peshaʿ the rebellion
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-sh-ʿ
to rebel, break away
The word translated “transgression” carries the force of rebellion or breach, rather than a mere stumble. The phrase binds that rupture to desolation while leaving its duration open to question.
ALSO GROWS
pāšaʿ: to rebel, break away
פָּשַׁע
The verb makes the breach active, clarifying the force carried by the noun in the verse.
pōšēaʿ: one who rebels
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This related form names the one who enacts the breakaway.
THE PATTERN
When violence presses upon what is sacred, scripture gives the oppressed a “How long?” that makes the violence speakable and answerable.
O LORD, how long shall I cry out, and you will not hear and respond? I cry out to you of violence, and you will not deliver.How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy spurn your name for the ages?And they cry out with a great voice, saying, How long, Set-Apart and true Master, will you not judge and avenge our blood against those who settle upon the earth?THE THREAD
The foot will trample it, the feet of the bowed ones, the steps of the emptied.Both verses use the רמס (r-m-s) root for trampling underfoot. Daniel places the sanctuary and host beneath it; Isaiah turns the image so the feet belong to the poor and needy.
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