Dan 8:1

Dan 8: Daniel’s vision of the ram and the goat: (1) The setting of the vision (v 1); (2) The ram (vv 2-4); (3) The goat (vv 5-8); (4) The little horn on the goat (vv 9-14); (5) The interpretation of this vision (vv 15-26); (6) The result of this vision (v 27).

Dan 7 recorded the general history of “the times of the Gentiles,” from the time Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews into captivity until the Son of Man’s return to the earth. Dan 8 reveals more detail about the second (Persian) and third (Greek) kingdoms, and especially how they relate to Israel.

Two things signal the beginning of a new section in the book: (1) a return to the Hebrew language in the original text (as in Dan 1:1 — 2:3), and (2) an emphasis on the nation Israel. Evidently Daniel wrote the remainder of this book in Hebrew because the revelation in it concerned his people particularly.

THE THIRD YEAR OF KING BELSHAZZAR’S REIGN: Approx 551 BC, two years after the vision in Dan 7 and about 12 years before the events of Dan 5. Daniel was then living within the kingdom of Neo-Babylonia, the first beast of Dan 7.

Dan 8:2

I SAW MYSELF IN THE CITADEL OF SUSA: Evidently Daniel was in Babylon when he had this vision, but what he saw, including himself, was in Susa (Shushan, AV; cf Eze 8:3; 40:1). Daniel probably knew where he was in his vision because he had visited Susa. It is reasonable to assume that a man in Daniel’s position in the Neo-Babylonian government would have visited Susa previously. Susa stood about 200 miles east of Babylon and approximately 150 miles due north of the top of the Persian Gulf. When Medo-Persia overthrew Neo-Babylonia, Susa became the capital of the Persian Empire. Eighty years after Daniel had this vision Susa became Esther’s home. One hundred seven years later it was the city from which Nehemiah departed to return to Palestine (Est 1:2; Neh 1:1). The citadel was the palace, the royal residence, that had strong fortifications.

THE PROVINCE OF ELAM: Elam was the name of the province where Susa stood when Daniel wrote this book, not necessarily when he had this vision.

THE ULAI CANAL: Prob an artificial canal which connected the rivers Choastes (the modern Kerkha) and Coprates (the modern Abdizful) and ran close by Susa.

Dan 8:3

A RAM: The ram (male sheep) that Daniel saw standing before the canal represented Medo-Persia (v 20). It corresponds to the lopsided bear in the Dan 7 vision (Dan 7:5).

The ram was especially important for the Persians. The guardian spirit of the Persian Empire was portrayed as a ram. When the Persian king went into battle, he carried the head of a ram. Also, in the ancient world, different zodiac signs represented various nations. Aries, the ram, stood for Persia, and Capricorn (Latin “caper”, goat, and “cornu”, horn) was Greece.

TWO HORNS: The two horns, representing power, symbolized Media and Persia, the two kingdoms that formed an alliance to create Medo-Persia. The longer horn stood for Persia, which had become more powerful in the alliance and had risen to displace Media in leadership after the two nations merged.

Dan 8:4

THE RAM… CHARGED TOWARD THE WEST AND THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH: Historically the Medo-Persian Empire pushed its borders primarily in three directions. It went westward (into Lydia, Ionia, Thrace, and Macedonia), northward (toward the Caspian Mountains, the Oxus Valley, and Scythia), and southward (toward Babylonia, Palestine, and Egypt). These advances happened mainly under the leadership of Cyrus and Cambyses.

HE DID AS HE PLEASED AND BECAME GREAT: In general, Medo-Persia had its own way for many years, and it glorified itself. “There is nothing inherently wrong about ‘doing great things’… but the expression is only used in an unequivocally good sense of God (1Sa 12:24; Psa 126:2, 3); of human beings it tends to suggest arrogance (Jer 48:26; Joel 2:20; Zeph 2:10; Psa 35:26; 55:12), or at least achievement at someone else’s expense (Zeph 2:8; Lam 1:9) — here achievement that presages calamity. The expression has the foreboding ambiguity of the mouth speaking great things in Dan 7:8,20” (Goldingay).

Dan 8:5

A GOAT WITH A PROMINENT HORN: The text also identifies the male goat — goats are relatives of sheep — in this vision as representing Greece (v 21). History has confirmed the identification. Alexander the Great is clearly the conspicuous horn. Normally goats have two horns, so this one was unusual.

PROMINENT: “Notable” (KJV), or “conspicuous” (RSV).

CAME FROM THE WEST: Under Alexander, the Greek armies advanced quickly from the west against Persia.

CROSSING THE WHOLE EARTH WITHOUT TOUCHING THE GROUND: “Alexander’s conquest of the entire Near and Middle East within three years stands unique in military history and is appropriately portrayed by the lightning speed of this one-horned goat. Despite the immense numerical superiority of the Persian imperial forces and their possession of military equipment like war elephants, the tactical genius of young Alexander, with his disciplined Macedonian phalanx, proved decisive” (Archer).

Dan 8:7

Due to previous attacks by the Persians, the Greeks retaliated against their enemies with unusual vengeance. Alexander won two significant battles in Asia Minor in 334 BC and in 333, first at the Granicus River and then at Issus in Phrygia. Alexander finally subdued Persia with a victory at Gaugamela near Nineveh in 331 BC.

Dan 8:8

Clearly this description corresponds to that of the third beast in Dan 7:6. Alexander magnified himself exceedingly in two ways. He extended the borders of his empire after he conquered Medo-Persia even farther east, into modern Afghanistan and to the Indus Valley. He also became extremely arrogant. He regarded himself as divine and made his soldiers bow down before him. This resulted in his troops revolting.

“Expositors, both liberal and conservative, have interpreted this verse as representing the untimely death of Alexander and the division of his empire into four major sections. Alexander, who had conquered more of the world than any previous ruler, was not able to conquer himself. Partly due to a strenuous exertion, his dissipated life, and a raging fever, Alexander died in a drunken debauch at Babylon, not yet thirty-three years of age. His death left a great conquest without an effective single leader, and it took about twenty years for the empire to be successfully divided” (Walvoord).

PROMINENT: “Notable” (KJV), or “conspicuous” (RSV).

Dan 8:9

Comparison between the “little horn” of Dan 8 and the “ruler” of Dan 9: