Daniel Chapter 8 Vs. 26

 Daniel's Vision of the Ram and the Goat

Daniel 8:26 "And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told [is] true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it [shall be] for many days."

vision of the... This is the central truth of the vision—the cutting off of 2,300 daily evening and morning sacrifices by the future Antichrist (Dan. 8:9-14).

shut thou up... This is the peculiar way of saying that the prophecy will not be fulfilled for a long time. In fact, it has been over 2,600 years since the prophecy was given and yet the main part of it remains to be fulfilled in the future great tribulation (Dan. 8:9-14, 8:20-25; Mat. 24:15-22; Rev. 13:1-18).

Since he told it here, this did not mean to shut it up to secrecy but to preserve it as truth even if not to be fulfilled for a long time.

In upcoming chapters of Daniel, we see where God has told him to shut up the words until the time of the end.

Daniel 12:4 "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, [even] to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."

Daniel 12:9 "And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words [are] closed up and sealed till the time of the end.”

Daniel was told to seal up the vision in the sense of concluding it, not in the sense of keeping it secret, because it needed to be preserved for the future. He kept it in his mind and later preserved it in writing when he wrote it down under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.