12:4 Closing up and sealing suggest not merely conserving the words in the book but withholding them (cf. 8:26; sealing reminds us that the “book” is a scroll). This understanding is confirmed by the next words: because they are withheld, “many will hurry to and fro,” unable to find a word from God (see Amos 8:11–12). But the unsealing of Daniel’s book during the Antiochene crisis ends that famine.160 It also means that the words now become intelligible, “for every prophecy, before its fulfillment,