What Does Daniel 11:35 Mean in the King James?
And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The fall is real, yet the verse places those who fall inside a refining that sifts and purifies.
THE MEANING
Understanding does not keep you from falling: the verse says some who understand still stumble, and it does not make that fall less real. Yet the same sentence places them inside a hard process of testing, purging, and being made white, bounded by an appointed time. The process has a limit; the end is not open-ended.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A fall proves that you never understood, or that everything is already lost.
THE ROOT
יִכָּשְׁלוּ
yikkāšəlû
GROWS FROM
כשל
k-sh-l
To stumble, totter, or be brought low.
English “fall” can sound like a final verdict; this root also names stumbling and the obstacle that trips someone. Here the fall remains real, but the verse attaches it to a process of refining.
ALSO GROWS
mikshol: An obstacle that causes someone to stumble.
מִכְשׁוֹל
The same root names both the stumble and what trips a person, sharpening the image behind “fall.”
hikhshil: To cause another to stumble or falter.
הִכְשִׁיל
The root reaches beyond a private failure to include the forces that bring someone low.
לִצְרֹף
litzrof
GROWS FROM
צרף
ts-r-f
To smelt or refine metal; by extension, to test through refining.
“to try” in this verse is litzrof. English “try” can sound like a pass-or-fail examination; this root carries the image of a smith refining metal. The test is pictured as a process that separates and clarifies, making the following verbs part of the same movement.
ALSO GROWS
tsaruf: Refined metal, purified by smelting.
צָרוּף
It shows the refining sense behind the verse’s word “try.”
tsoreph: A person who refines or works metal.
צֹרֵף
The branch makes the image concrete: testing is the work of a refiner, not merely an abstract examination.
לְבָרֵר
levareir
GROWS FROM
ברר
b-r-r
To sift, sort, clarify, or purify.
This root holds sorting and cleansing together. The verse’s “purge” carries the image of what is mixed being sifted apart until what remains is clear.
ALSO GROWS
barur: Something clarified, pure, or distinct.
בָּרוּר
It shows the clarity toward which the sifting moves.
uvaroti: To separate out by purging or selecting.
וּבָרֹתִי
This form preserves the root’s sense of clearing by distinguishing what is removed.
THE PATTERN
Testing is pictured as refining: a process that separates and clarifies what remains.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:THE THREAD
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.Daniel 12:10 repeats the Hebrew roots for purifying, making white, and refining, in a different order. It also sets understanding against wickedness, showing how the refining process discloses who perceives.
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