Daniel 12:2

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,.... Which is not to be understood in a figurative and metaphorical, sense, as by R.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

So enamoured are some of their notions, though found false and ill-grounded, that they will pertinaciously hold them, and seek still to prove one absurdity from another, as Grotius doth here, still expounding all of Antiochus, and so makes this resurrection metaphorical, and not the real ultimate one; whereas the most learned Jews themselves are against him, as the late Manasseh Ben Israel in his book de Resurrectione.

Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame [and] everlasting contempt.Ver. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust.] "Many" for all; these are said to sleep, which denoteth the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. (The soul liveth in the sleep of death, as it doth in the sleep of the body in this life). And this the poor Jews, when to lose land and life for the truth, are here seasonably and plainly told of (amidst other things that are but darkly delivered) to bear up their sinking spirits. Awake they shall as out of of a sweet sleep, those that are good, and then be full of God’ s image. The wicked also shall "come forth," but by another principle, and for another purpose; they shall come out of their graves like filthy toads against this terrible storm, &c. Some to everlasting life.] Which is here first mentioned in the Old Testament. See Matthew 25:45 John 5:29. And some to shame and everlasting contempt.] Christ shall shame them in that ample amphitheatre, and doom them to eternal destruction. Gravissima poenarum pudor est, saith Chrysostom. Oh, when Christ shall upbraid reprobates, and say, Ego vos pavi, lavi, vestivi, &c., which way will they look? or who shall say for them? They shall look then upon him whom they have pierced and lament, but all too late, οψονται, κοψονται; they shall be sore ashamed of their sinful practices, which shall all be written in their foreheads; and this shall be as a bodkin at their hearts, that ever they turned their backs upon Christ’ s bleeding embracements, while they refused to be reformed, hated to be healed.

(2) Many . . . that sleep in the dust.—Literally, Many sleepers in the land of dust. The word “sleep” is applied to death (Jeremiah 51:39; comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:14); while “dust” is used for the grave (Psalms 22:29). Some difficulty is presented by the use of the word “many” where “all” would have been expected. Theodoret explains it from Romans 5:15, where he observes “many” stands for “all.” It is, however, more in accordance with the language to suppose that by the word “many” some contrast is implied, which is apparently between the many who sleep in the dust and the comparatively small number of those who “are alive and remain.” (See John 5:28, &c.) It should be noted that this passage not only teaches the doctrine of a general resurrection, which had already been incidentally revealed by Daniel’s contemporary, Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:1-4), but also the facts of eternal life, and a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just. Shame and everlasting contempt.—The latter word occurs only in this passage and Isaiah 66:24, where see the Note. For the use of the word “shame,” comp. Jeremiah 23:40.

Verse 2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth] This prophecy has been referred to the future restoration of the Jews. It will be also true of the state of mankind at the general judgment.

2. The resurrection. The doctrine of a future life is not fully developed in the O.T.; it is nascent; and the stages in its growth are clearly distinguishable. The idea of a resurrection appears first, though in a national, not in an individual sense, in Hosea 6:2 : it appears next, also in a national sense (see Davidson’s note, p. 267), in Ezekiel’s famous vision of the Valley of dry bones (xxxvii. 1–14): the resurrection of individuals appears first in the post-exilic prophecy of Isaiah 24-27, viz. Isaiah 26:19 (see Skinner’s note), though, as in Ezek. (Ezekiel 37:11), it is still expressly limited to Israel (it is denied, Ezekiel 37:14, of Israel’s foes): in the present passage, a resurrection of the wicked, as well as of the righteous, is taught for the first time, and the doctrine of a different future reserved for each is also for the first time enunciated. See further the Introd. p. xcii. many] The resurrection is still limited implicitly to Israel. It is not said who are to compose the ‘many’: perhaps the author thinks in particular of the martyrs, and apostates, respectively, who, on the one side or the other, had been prominent during the reign of Antiochus. sleep] in death: cf. Jeremiah 51:39; Jeremiah 51:57; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:10. in the dusty ground] lit. the ground of dust. The expression is peculiar, and occurs only here. ‘Dust’ is often said of the grave, as to ‘lie down upon the dust’ (Job 20:11; Job 21:26), and ‘they that go down to the dust’ (Psalms 22:29). shall awake] cf., in the same sense, Isaiah 26:19; also (where it is denied) Job 14:12, and (of the Babylonians) Jeremiah 51:39; Jeremiah 51:57. some to everlasting life] The expression occurs only here in the O.T., but it is frequent in post-Biblical Jewish writings: e.g. in Enoch (xxxvii. 4, xl. 9, lviii. 3, lxii. 14); Psalms of Sol. 3:16 (cf. 13:9); 4Ma 15:3 (cf. 2Ma 7:9; 2Ma 7:36); and in the Targums (in which passages of the O.T. relating really to the present life are often interpreted as referring to a future life)[394]. A more common synonym is ‘the life of the age to come’ (ηιιδςεμνδαΰ), Aboth ii. 7, &c. (Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, p. 129). [394] See examples in the writer’s Sermons on the O.T. (1892), pp. 83, 88–91; Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, p. 128.some to reproaches (Psalms 69:9-10 [Heb.]) and everlasting abhorrence] the last word (only once besides) from Isaiah 66:24 ‘And they [the carcases of the transgressors, slain outside Jerusalem] shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.’ Cf. in the N.T., Matthew 25:46; John 5:29.

And many of them - The natural and obvious meaning of the word “many” (רבים rabı̂ym) here is, that a large portion of the persons referred to would thus awake, but not all.

2. Contempt — Rather, abhorrence. Many — The idea is that of multitudinousness. It neither asserts nor excludes the thought that all shall rise (Thomson).