Bible Strands
Daniel 12:4
But you, Daniel, shut up these words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will roam to and fro, and knowledge will increase.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The angel who appeared in Daniel 10 speaks to Daniel immediately after delivering the end-times vision (12:1–3) and before Daniel asks for further explanation (12:5).
The words — Two distinct verbs carry the command: סְתֹם (sēṭôm, "keep secret") and חָתַם (ḥāṯam, "seal"), pairing concealment with a formal, legal act of closure.
The thread — Daniel 8:26 and 12:9 repeat the sealing language; Revelation 22:10 explicitly reverses it with "Do not seal up the words of prophecy in this book."
Why it lands — The seal was placed on Daniel, not on the reader; Revelation 22:10 announces that the seal has been lifted, making the increase of knowledge (12:4) the stated purpose of the book's eventual opening.
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
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Cross-references
- Daniel 12:9 “Go on your way, Daniel,” he replied, “for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.
- Revelation 22:10 Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of prophecy in this book, because the time is near.
- Daniel 8:26 The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been spoken is true. Now you must seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.”
- Daniel 8:17 As he came near to where I stood, I was terrified and fell facedown. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.”
- Revelation 10:4 When the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to put it in writing. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
- Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples.
- Isaiah 32:3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.
- Daniel 12:13 But as for you, go on your way until the end. You will rest, and then you will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.”
- Isaiah 11:9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water.
- Isaiah 29:18 On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.