Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:daniel Chapter 12 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of daniel, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Daniel 12
New Revised Standard Version
1"At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.
2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
4But you, end. Many shall be running back and forth, and evil shall increase."
5Then I, Daniel, looked, and two others appeared, one standing on this bank of the stream and one on the other.
6One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was upstream, "How long shall it be until the end of these wonders?"
7The man clothed in linen, who was upstream, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven. And I heard him swear by the one who lives forever that it would be for a time, two times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be accomplished.
8I heard but could not understand; so I said, "My lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?"
9He said, "Go your way, the end.
10Many shall be purified, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked shall continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.
11From the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that desolates is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred ninety days.
12Happy are those who persevere and attain the thousand three hundred thirty-five days.
13But you, go your way, and rest; you shall rise for your reward at the end of the days." The Minor Prophets 1. Hosea 2. Joel 3. Amos 4. Obadiah 5. Jonah 6. Micah 7. Nahum 8. Habakkuk 9. Zephaniah 10. Haggai 11. Zechariah 12. Malachi HOSEA
1787HOSEA Introduction The book of Hosea stands first in that part of the latter prophets called the Book of the Twelve, also known as the minor prophets because of their relative brevity in comparison with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Along with his contemporary Amos, Hosea was the first of the "writing prophets," those prophets whose speeches were collected and edited as literary documents. The book consists primarily of speeches critiquing the political, social, and, above all, religious life of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, in the final days before its conquest and destruction by the Assyrians in
722BCE. Hosea refers to Israel under the titles of "Ephraim," its largest tribe, and "Samaria," its capital. 'Ephraim' was the name for the region surrounding Samaria. Though often used as a general term for the Northern Kingdom, its use here and Hosea's preference for it (4.16ff.) over Israel in the rest of the book could reflect a changed political situation. Israel gradually lost its territory in Transjordan, Galilee, and Jezreel in this period; in the end Ephraim was all that remained. Over the course of three decades (ca. 750-720 BCE), Hosea interpreted the unfolding disaster as a divine punishment — the Assyrians were merely God's tool — for violation of the exclusive demands of the Lord. With frequent allusions to Israelite historical traditions, Hosea portrayed Israel's entire history as a spiritual decline from an ideal time, its "youth" in the period of Moses (2.25; 11.1). Hosea is best known for his metaphors, drawn from the natural world, agriculture, and, especially, kinship structures: Israel as the LORD's wife, Israel as the LORD's son. These familial metaphors are introduced in two narrative sections about the prophet's own life at the beginning of the book (1.2-2.1; 3.1-5). The prophet's personal life is presented as a paradigm of the relationship between the Lord and Israel (2.25; 11.1). HOSEA
1788Not all aspects of Hosea's life are clear, and it remains debatable whether one can deduces actual biographical facts from the descriptions in chs 1-3. But insofar as these chapters construct a biographical story for prophetic purposes, it can best be reconstructed that Hosea deals with Gomer as the Lord deals with Israel. Gomer is "a wife of whoredom," best understood as "a promiscuous woman." She bore three children, of whom Hosea was presumably not the father (2.4-5). After a period of marital separation, Hosea took her back (3.15). In a similar way, Israel, the LORD's unfaithful wife, will be separated from her husband and home but, just as Hosea bough back Gomer (3.2), the Lord will restore Israel. Hosea's images of Israel's sexual misconduct may be more than symbolic (e.g., 4.13-19; 9.1). Canaanite religious practice may have included sexual rites in the imitation of the gods, who, presumably, generated terrestrial fertility through sexual intercourse. Hosea began his career in the final days of Jeroboam II (1.1), whose reign capped a century of political stability and economic prosperity in the Northern Kingdom under the Jehu dynasty. Jeroboam died in
747BCE about the time that, in Assyria, Tiglath-pileser III came to power (745 BCE) and initiated a program of imperial expansion. A prolonged national crisis ensued, which ended with the demise of the Northern Kingdom. Israel floundered under the Assyrian onslaught: Of the six kings who reigned in the next two decades, four were assassinated as the nation veered between appeasement, at the cost of heavy tribute, and rebellion, seeking futile alliances with Syria and Egypt. We cannot be sure when Hosea's prophetic career ended, though his oracles appear to allude to events right up to the Assyrian siege of Samaria in
722BCE (13.10-11,16). During this national crisis, Hosea issued an unrelenting critique of existing political and religious institutions. Through dynastic kingship, political alliances with other nations, and above all, illicit religious practices, Israel had violated the divine claim upon it, forged in the time of Moses, for exclusive dependence upon and worship of the Lord. As divine punishment, Israel would be stripped of political and religious institutions too corrupts to be reformed and its land left HOSEA
1789desolate and barren. Israel would, in essence, find itself again in the wilderness. The severity of the prophetic critique, however, is juxtaposed with the language of divine longing and compassion (11.1-11; 13.4-7). In the short term, Hosea presented the disintegration of the northern state as inevitable. Drawing on a pattern discerned in Israel's sacred traditions, Hosea ultimately offered hope. In this new wilderness, as in the Sinai desert, Israel would recognize its dependence on the Lord and be restored to a harmonious state with God, and with the natural world (2.14-23). After the destruction of Samaria, Hosea's words were preserved and transmitted in Judah. Some or all of the references to Judah may have been added in this era as Hosea's words were reinterpreted to address an analogous situation there (e.g., 1.7; 3.5; 11.12). At the same time, it is possible that Hosea himself, through a northern prophet, addressed Judah as well. The book has two major sections, which appear to be roughly chronological. Chapters 1-3 contain the material about Hosea's marriage and can be understood against the background of the last days of Jeroboam III, since 1.4 announces the demise of the Jehu dynasty of which Jeroboam was the final ruler. The second major section, chs 4-14, consists entirely of prophetic speeches that seem to allude to the chaotic days following the demise of the house of Jehu and the prolonged Assyria crisis. Boundaries between individual speech units in this second section are difficult to discern. It seems to fall into two part (chs 4-11; 12-14), rhetorically couched as legal indictments of Israel for breach of covenant (4.1; 12.2), and ending with images of restoration (11.1-11; 14.1-7). HOSEA 1790