12:1 Michael. See notes on Daniel 10:13.

12:1 time of trouble. This is the “great tribulation,” the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week, following the placement of the “abomination of desolation” in the temple’s holy place (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 9:24-27).

12:1 thy people shall be delivered. During this terrible “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7), the true Israelites will be protected in the wilderness (Revelation 12:6,14), and prepared to receive Christ when He returns at the end of the great tribulation (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:25,26).

12:2 awake. This is an explicit promise of the future bodily resurrection of the dead, as recorded in one of the key prophetic books on the Old Testament. This is not, as some claim, a strictly New Testament doctrine. At this point (as in John 5:29), however, the thousand-year time interval between the resurrection of the saved and lost is not mentioned, since it is not relevant to the context and also (in view of the following verse) inconsequential in relation to eternity (Revelation 20:4-6).

12:2 everlasting contempt. Those who now look with contempt on the Bible and Biblical Christianity will eventually experience “everlasting contempt” on themselves—as well as “everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41), and “everlasting destruction” (II Thessalonians 1:9).

12:3 stars for ever. The wise will live forever and, for the analogy to be meaningful, the stars also must shine forever (note also Psalm 148:3-6; etc.). The universal “curse” on God’s creation, which now causes everything to decay and entropy to increase, will have been removed (Revelation 22:3), so no stars will thenceforth die.