Daniel 12:10 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried See chap. Daniel 11:35, where the same words are found, but in different order. They are words of general and ordinary use, expressive of the purification intended to be produced in the minds of men by afflictions. If we would ascertain their import, the first word is borrowed from wheat, which is cleansed from the chaff; the second from cloth, which is whitened by the fuller; and the third from metal, tried and separated from its dross by goldsmiths. I would refer the whole, says Wintle, to the righteous, who, it is here foretold, should be cleansed by various tribulations and trials; but the like discipline would have no effect on the wicked: see Revelation 22:11. Their wickedness would blind their minds, so that they would not understand, nor attend to these predictions, which the wise, that is, the considerate and divinely enlightened, should understand; should be fully instructed in themselves, and so should be able to teach them to others: see Wintle.