Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. There is no need of a fuller explanation as to the time: for when the predictions so far given shall have come to pass, the godly shall be "purified" by the foretold trials, and shall understand that the end is at hand; but the wicked shall not understand, and so shall rush on their own ruin (Daniel 11:33-35). (Maurer.) The "end" is primarily that of Antiochus' persecution; antitypically, the end of Antichrist's. It is the very clearness in the main which renders necessary the partial obscurity. The fulfillment of God's decree is not a mere arithmetical problem, which the profane may understand by arithmetical calculation; but a holy enigma, to stimulate to a faithful observance of God's ways, and to a diligent study of the history of God's people (Auberlen). To this Christ refers, Matthew 24:15, "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand)."