8:26 seal up the vision. The term “seal” can mean to authenticate or certify something, or to close up for confidentiality and safekeeping. The second sense seems best in this context (6:17 note).

it refers to many days from now. The words “from now” have been supplied by the translators. The conquests of Alexander (333–323 b.c.) occurred more than two centuries after Daniel’s vision (c. 550 b.c.). The activities of Antiochus IV were about a century and a half after Alexander (171–164 b.c.).