Daniel 8:19

And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) End of the indignation—i.e., the revelation of God’s wrath at the end of the time of the prophecy.

At the time appointed—i.e., the vision refers to the appointed time in the end.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:15-27 The eternal Son of God stood before the prophet in the appearance of a man, and directed the angel Gabriel to explain the vision. Daniel's fainting and astonishment at the prospect of evils he saw coming on his people and the church, confirm the opinion that long-continued calamities were foretold. The vision being ended, a charge was given to Daniel to keep it private for the present. He kept it to himself, and went on to do the duty of his place. As long as we live in this world we must have something to do in it; and even those whom God has most honoured, must not think themselves above their business. Nor must the pleasure of communion with God take us from the duties of our callings, but we must in them abide with God. All who are intrusted with public business must discharge their trust uprightly; and, amidst all doubts and discouragements, they may, if true believers, look forward to a happy issue. Thus should we endeavour to compose our minds for attending to the duties to which each is appointed, in the church and in the world.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation - In the future time when the Divine indignation shall be manifest toward the Hebrew people; to wit, by suffering the evils to come upon them which Antiochus would inflict. It is everywhere represented that these calamities would occur as a proof of the Divine displeasure on account of their sins. Compare Daniel 9:24; Daniel 11:35; 2 Macc. 7:33.

For at the time appointed the end shall be - It shall not always continue. There is a definite period marked out in the Divine purpose, and when that period shall arrive, the end of all this will take place. See the notes at Daniel 8:17.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. the last end of the indignation—God's displeasure against the Jews for their sins. For their comfort they are told, the calamities about to come are not to be for ever. The "time" is limited (Da 9:27; 11:27, 35, 36; 12:7; Hab 2:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the last end of the indignation, i.e. that God will raise up Antiochus to execute his wrath against the Jews for their sins, and that yet there shall be an end of that

indignation; God will have the end of his intention, and the end of his execution, in all his severe providences relating to his people.

At the time appointed the end shall be: this he saith to make us wait patiently. He that believeth will not make haste.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he said, behold, I will make thee know,.... Or, "make known unto thee" (n); what he knew not, even things future: particularly

what shall be in the last end of the indignation; the indignation of God against the people of Israel, in the sore affliction and persecution of them by Antiochus, which he suffered to be; here the angel suggests that that should not remain always, but should have an end; and he would inform the prophet what should be at the close; or rather, as Noldius (o) renders it, "what shall be unto the last end of the indignation"; all that should come to pass from the beginning of the Persian monarchy, signified by the "ram", quite through the Grecian monarchy, designed by the "he goat", unto the end of the persecution by Antiochus; for, certain it is, the angel informed the prophet of more things than what concerned the last part and, closing scene of these sorrowful times; even of all the above said things, which intervened between the setting up of the Persian monarchy, and the sufferings of the Jews in the times of Antiochus; and so Aben Ezra interprets it, here

"is declared the wrath of God upon Israel in the days of wicked Greece, and in the days of Antiochus, until the Hasmonaeans cleansed the temple:''

for at the time appointed the end shall be; the end of that indignation or affliction, and so of this vision or prophecy: there was a time appointed by God for the fulfilment of the whole; and when that time was come all would be accomplished; the indignation would cease, and the persecution be at an end.

(n) "ego notum faciam tibi", Piscator; "indicaturus tibi sum", Michaelis. (o) Concord. Ebr. Partic. p. 180. No. 809.

Geneva Study Bible

And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last {e} end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.

(e) Meaning that great rage which Antiochus would show against the Church.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. in the latter time (R.V.) of the indignation] The ‘indignation’ is the Divine wrath implied in Israel’s subjection to the nations: the persecution by Antiochus is the last stage of this indignation: when that is over, the kingdom of the saints will be set up. Cf. Daniel 11:36, ‘and he (Antiochus) shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished;’ and 1Ma 1:64, ‘and there came exceeding great wrath upon Israel.’ The word may be suggested by Isaiah 10:25; Isaiah 26:20.

for it (i.e. the vision, Daniel 8:17) belongeth to the appointed-time of the end] The sentence seems suggested by Habakkuk 2:3 (quoted on Daniel 8:17), though the word ‘end’ has not there the special sense which it has acquired in Daniel.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. The Septuagint here inserts a clause after "indignation." It reads, "on the children of thy people." It may have been inserted from Daniel 12:1, only it is used in such a different sense that that does not seem very likely. It may have been in the original text, and dropped out not unlikely by homoioteleuton. The missing clause would be עַל בְּנֵי עַמֶּך, the last word of which is like two. On the other hand, its omission from Theodotion and the Peshitta is not so easily intelligible. Theodotion is in close agreement with the Massoretic text. The Peshitta is more brief, practically omitting the last clause. We have here the reference to the end, as in ver. 17 it is not the end of the world that is in the mind of the writer, but the "end of the indignation." The Jews, while maintaining their gallant struggle against Epiphanes, have need of being assured that the battle will have an end, and one determined before by God, The angel has to make Daniel know the end of the indignation. It may be said that the present time, when Israel has neither country nor city, is one of indignation; but the immediate reference is to the persecution against the Jews inaugurated by Epiphanes. Daniel 8:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The justice of this exposition is placed beyond a doubt by this verse. Here the angel says in distinct words, "I will show thee what will happen הזּעם בּאחרית (in the last time of the indignation), for it relates to the appointed time of the end." Kliefoth indeed thinks that what the angel, Daniel 8:19, says to the prophet for his comfort is not the same that he had said to him in Daniel 8:17, and which cast him down, and that Daniel 8:19 does not contain anything so weighty and so overwhelming as Daniel 8:17, but something more cheering and consoling; that it gives to the vision another aspect, which relieves Daniel of the sorrow which it had brought upon him on account of its import with reference to the end. From this view of the contents of Daniel 8:19 Kliefoth concludes that Daniel, after he had recovered from his terror in the presence of the heavenly messenger, and had turned his mind to the contents of the vision, was thrown to the ground by the thought presented to him by the angel, that the vision had reference to the end of all things, and that, in order to raise him up, the angel said something else to him more comforting of the vision. But this conclusion has no foundation in the text. The circumstance that Daniel was not again cast to the ground by the communication of the angel in Daniel 8:19, is not to be accounted for by supposing that the angel now made known to him something more consoling; but it has its foundation in this, that the angel touched the prophet, who had fallen dismayed to the earth, and placed him again on his feet (Daniel 8:18), and by means of this touch communicated to him the strength to hear his words. But the explanation which Kliefoth gives of Daniel 8:19 the words do not bear. "The last end of the indignation" must denote the time which will follow after the expiration of the זעם, i.e., the period of anger of the Babylonian Exile. But אחרית means, when space is spoken of, that which is farthest (cf. Psalm 139:9), and when time is spoken of, the last, the end, the opposite of רשׁית, the end over against the beginning. If הימים אחרית does not denote such a time was follows an otherwise fixed termination, but the last time, the end-time (see under Daniel 2:28), so also, since זעם is here the time of the revelation of the divine wrath, הזּעם אחרית ה can only denote the last time, or the end-time, of the revelation of the divine wrath. This explanation of the words, the only one which the terms admit of, is also required by the closing words of Daniel 8:19, קץ למועד כּי (for at the time appointed the end). According to the example of the Vulg., quoniam habet tempus finem suum, and Luther's version, "for the end has its appointed time," Kliefoth translates the words, "for the firmly-ordained, definite time has its end," and refers this to the time of the Babylonish Exile, which indeed, as Daniel knew (Daniel 9:2), was fixed by God to seventy years. But that in the Babylonish Exile will have its fixed end, will come to an end with the seventy years, the angel needed not to announce to the prophet, for he did not doubt it, and the putting him in remembrance of that fact would have afforded him but very poor consolation regarding the time of the future wrath. This conception of the words depends on the inaccurate interpretation of the words הזּעם אחרית, and will consequently fall to the ground along with it. If למועד (to the appointment) were separated from קץ, and were to be taken by itself, and to be understood of the time of the זעם, then it ought to have the article, as in Daniel 11:27, Daniel 11:35. Without the article, as here, it must be connected with קץ, and them, with החזון supplied as the subject from the context (Daniel 8:17), is to be translated, as it is by almost all modern interpreters: for the vision relates to the appointed time of the end. But עתקץ, the time of the end, and קץ מועד, the appointed time of the end, is not the absolute end of all things, the time of the setting up of the regnum gloriae, and the time of the tribulation preceding the return of our Lord; but the time of the judgment of the world-kingdom and the setting up of the everlasting kingdom of God by the appearance of the Messiah, the end of αἰὼν οὕτος and the commencement of the αἰὼν μέλλων, the time of the הימים אחרית (Daniel 10:14), which the apostle calls (1 Corinthians 10:11) τὰ τέλη τῶν αἰώνων, and speaks of as having then already come.