Bible Strands
Daniel 12:2
And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through the vision to Daniel, situating this awakening within the end-time distress that follows Michael's rise (v.1). It is addressed to Daniel's people and, by extension, to all who read.
The words — עוֹלָם (ʿôlām), literally "perpetuity" or "duration," is applied to both sides of the split: everlasting life and everlasting contempt. The same word carries both the reward and the punishment, making the contrast one of quality, not of time.
The thread — Isaiah 26:19 calls the dust-dwellers to awake; John 5:28 places the hearing of Christ's voice before the resurrection; Matthew 25:46 repeats the binary of eternal punishment and eternal life. Daniel 12:2 is the Old Testament anchor for the two-outcome resurrection.
Why it lands — The verse offers no third category; "many" (רַבִּים) will awake, and each awaking is to one of two destinations. It asks the reader to identify which side of the split they are on, without the comfort of ambiguity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Cross-references
- John 5:28 Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice
- Isaiah 26:19 Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.
- Matthew 25:46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
- Ezekiel 37:12 Therefore prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O My people, I will open your graves and bring you up from them, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.
- Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.
- 1 Corinthians 15:51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
- Acts 24:15 and I have the same hope in God that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
- Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
- Job 19:25 But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.