Parsing Daniel 8:12

This is one of the strangest verses in the entire Bible, and its peculiarities make it especially challenging to translate from Hebrew. It defies the typical rules of Hebrew grammar, where every word has gender—masculine or feminine—and the verbs generally agree with the nouns they describe. In standard Hebrew sentences, masculine nouns are paired with masculine verbs, and feminine nouns with feminine verbs. However, in verse 12, there are no masculine verbs to match the masculine nouns, creating a grammatical mismatch that’s unusual and striking.

For someone reading in English, this anomaly feels even more unnatural. English doesn’t assign gender to most nouns or verbs, relying instead on word order: the subject comes first, followed by the verb and then the object. There are only a few gendered words, like pronouns or certain nouns such as king-queen or goose-gander, but the language is generally neutral.

This kind of grammatical irregularity isn’t a simple error; it’s too systematic to be accidental—more like a mistake a young child might make, such as “I runned all the way here.” It’s as if the verse has a flashing red sign saying, “Hey, look at me!” The question is: Why? Why does the text go against the norms of Hebrew grammar in such a conspicuous way? That’s a puzzle that invites deeper exploration into its possible symbolic, linguistic, or theological significance.

And the host was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through transgression; and truth was cast down to the ground, and the horn acted and prospered. Dan 8:12

 Parsing Chart

If this is your first encounter with a parsing chart for a Hebrew passage, you might recognize nouns, masculine singular forms, prepositions, and adjectives. However, Hebrew verb tenses can be entirely unfamiliar to an English speaker. Unlike English, which categorizes verbs into past, present, or future, Hebrew employs different systems — in this verse, the verbs are in niphel, hiphel, and qal, which can all be perfect or imperfect. forms. 

English speakers tend to focus heavily on the chronological order of actions because of our limited tense system. Hebrew, in contrast, doesn’t rely on time to convey meaning in the same way, which can make translation challenging. Niphel and hiphel are causative tenses, indicating that an agent is causing or influencing an action. Qal perfect signifies a completed action—similar to the English past tense. While Hebrew does have other tenses, this overview doesn’t aim to be an in-depth grammatical lesson.

And host (army/war/service) common noun masculine singular

give (/given/put /set) niphel imperfect third person feminine 

upon (to) preposition particle

the continually adjective

(in/at/with) (transgression/rebellion) noun masculine singular

and cast (throw/fling) hiphel imperfect third person feminine singular 

truth common noun feminine singular

the land (earth/ground) common noun feminine singular 

and to (do make) qal perfect third person singular feminine 

and prosper (succeed/rush) hiphel third person feminine singular 

Missing from the Hebrew Text  are the words “burnt” and “offering.” The translators have changed the adjective “continual” and added the noun “burnt offering.” This is a presumption on their part, as there are several ‘continual’ ceremonies. Not just the burnt offerings. This is another example of why one cannot trust translations. Translators mistakenly thought the context of this passage was solely about the temple. Because it states that this will be for “evening and morning,” any of the daily temple sacrifices might be meant.

There is no reason to limit “evening and morning” to one category of offerings. Several rituals in the Torah instruct the Tabernacle/Temple to be continual, not just evening and morning sacrifices. These sacred rituals are part of the broader contract that the people promised to uphold:

•  The Burning of Incense Ex. 10:8
•  The Evening and Morning Sacrifice Ex. 29:38
•  The Fire upon the Altar Lev. 6:17
•  The Burning of the Menorah Lev. 24:4
•  The Sabbath Day Lev. 24:8
•  The Bread on the Table Num. 4:7

Our Translation

And the host (the chosen people) was given (to the little horn) together with the continual because of the transgression (of God’s people—their abounding irreverence, ungodliness, and lack of piety) and righteousness and truth were cast down to the ground, and the rebellious (little horn) accomplished this (by divine permission) very successfully.