What does Daniel 8:26 mean?

Gabriel (Daniel 8:15–16) affirmed that the prior mention of evenings and the mornings was true (Daniel 8:13–14). He advises Daniel to "seal up" what has been seen (Daniel 8:1–2) so it can be preserved. As Daniel will later note (Daniel 9:21–23; 10:21), he was guided to write his words in precisely the way God wanted. This process of writing under God's inspiration is defined in 2 Peter 1:21: "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

These fulfillments are far in Daniel's future, as he wrote in the mid-sixth-century BC. Events contained in this vision were at least several centuries away. Some, like those referring to the end times, were millennia in the future as they have yet to be fulfilled. "Sealing" a scroll kept the loose ends secured so it would be more durable.

In an earlier comment, Daniel heard that this time of trouble would last some 2,300 "evenings and mornings" (Daniel 8:14). The book of Genesis uses the phrase "evening and morning" to refer to a day, but some commentators believe this might mean a total of 2,300 evenings plus mornings, or 1,150 days. This would make the time roughly the same as the "great tribulation" predicted later (Daniel 9:27), but with some discrepancy.

More widely accepted is that this terrible time would end on or about 164 BC with the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had come to power around 170 BC. His evil included terrible persecution and desecration of the Jewish temple. Some commentators link the number 2,300 to the total number of sacrifices—morning and evening—which would have been prevented between the temple's defilement around 167 BC and its cleansing after Epiphanes' death. After being purified, the twice-daily sacrifices were able to resume.