Judgment in Daniel 7

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Judgment in Daniel 7vs.25a1vs.25a2VS.25b1vs.251nABJ\.B'And he shall speak words against the Most High,and he shall wear out the saints of the Most High;And he shall seek to change times and law,and they shall be given into his hand for a time, twotimes, and half a time.This arrangement means that thewords directed against the MostHigh(vs. 25al) relate or pertain in some manner to God's times and law accordingto verse 25bl. In like manner, the persecution of His saints spoken ofin verse 25a2 is to continue through the period of time delimited in verse25b2. Thus the thoughts expressed in verse 25b parallel and supplementthe thoughts expressed in verse 25a in true poetic fashion. Other links betweenthese two bicola may be observed. For example:In verse 25a the verbs ("shall speak," "shall wear out") come at theend of the cola; in verse 25b the two verbs ("shall seek," "shall be given")come at the beginning. Thus these two sets of verbs are placed back-tobackand link their respective thoughts. A nominal object ("words") occursat the beginning of the first colon of verse 25a; a nominal object ("law")occurs at the end of the first colon ofverse 25b. The use of the infinitive("to change") in verse 25bl requires that the letter lamed be prefIXed to itin the middle ofthat colon; lamed is also used as a preposition ("against")in the middle ofverse 25al. Thus there is a chiastic relationship betweenthese two cola ofA:B:C: :C':B':~.A similar chiastic relationship can also beseenwhenverse 25a2 is comparedwith verse 25b2 in the Hebrew textual arrangement. The orderisprepositionalphrase ("to/forsaints"): verb ("shallwearout"): :verb ("shallbe given"): prepositional phrase ("into his hand"). These chiastic relationsexpress the disruptive power of the little horn.The lengthy wording of the temporal phrase that comprises the laststatement ofverse 25 ("for a time, two times, and half a time") makes thisthe longest colon in the stanza in terms of its meter. This brings the littlehorn to the climax ofits work. Butall thatwork is to be undone by thejudgmentdescribed in the next verse (verse 26). The saints referred to at thispoint in time are the people of God living on the earth.It has been proposed-and reasonably s
Judgment in Daniel 7This means that it is in regard to the law that the little hornwill attemptto change times. Since, according to our poetic analysis, this is the law ofthe Most High, and since the Ten Commandments are the highest expressionofHis law, and since the fourth precept ofthat moral code is the particularone that has to do with time, an attempt by the little horn to tamperwith the Sabbath would fulfill that aspect ofits work described here.The phrase "thejudgmentshall sit" (vs. 26) is identical with the phrase"the judgment sat" (vs. 10). The minor difference is that the form of theverb has been changed from a perfect in the vision to an imperfect in theexplanation. Obviously, it is the judgment depicted earlier (vss. 9-10) thatwill take away the dominion of the little horn.The plural subject and verb, "they [those who sit in thejudgment] shalltake away his dominion," evidently refers back to the angelic personnel involvedin the heavenly court as we observed earlier (vss. 9-10).The verb used for "take away" is the same that is used in verse 14regarding the dominion of the Son of man that will never be taken away.The intensive verbal construction that describes the destruction of thelittle horn in the second colon ofverse 26 ("to destroy and annihilate it tothe last") has already been discussed above in connection with the parallelconstruction in verse 23.Verse 27 contains the only tricolon in these three stanzas. It tells aboutthe reception of the kingdom by the saints of the Most High. This actionreverses the fate they suffered earlier under the little horn (vs. 25). Theverb ("shall begiven") occurs in the third colon. The first two cola describethe kingdom they are to receive.The first colon refers to "the kingdom" and "the dominion," using thedefinite article. They are in reverse order to their earlier occurrence inconnection with their reception by the Son ofman (vs. 14); they also occurin that passage without the article. These differences appear to be intentionaland could serve to differentiate the Son ofman from any corporatefigure for the saints as a collective.The grammatical construction implies that the Son of man receivesdominion or authority over the kingdom, and then gives the saints thekingdom or territorywith attendant authorization for its use. The kingdomthey receive is that one and the same kingdom He received and has givento them; hence, the use of the article in their case is reasonably viewed asan article of previous reference.The middle colon in the tricolon ("the greatness ofthe kingdom underthe whole heaven") is a parenthetical elaboration on the extent of their131
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Judgment in Daniel 7

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