A chiasm is a literary structure where the words or themes of the first section of a passage are repeated in reverse order in the second. Typically whatever is in the center of the chiasm is what is being emphasized. In Daniel 12 the center is that the final prophesied event of the end times will be the conclusion of the final three and one-half years when the power of the holy people will be shattered by the antichrist (Dan 12:7).