Danielchapter 8
27 verses · KJVDaniel book hub →
Key verse
And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.
It stands in Gabriel sent to explain the vision of the end, verses 15 to 19.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Two years later, in vision at Shushan by the river Ulai, Daniel sees a ram with two horns, the higher coming up last, pushing west and north and south with none to deliver: Media and Persia, named outright in the interpretation. Then a he-goat from the west that crosses the earth without touching the ground, with a notable horn between his eyes; he shatters the ram, and at his strength the great horn is broken and four come up in its place. From one of them a little horn grows exceeding great toward the glorious land, taking away the continual burnt-offering and casting down the sanctuary. Gabriel explains, 'for the vision belongeth to the time of the end,' and Daniel is left sick.
Context
Prophecy · Daniel · Daniel overview
Where the chapter sits
Daniel 8 falls in Apocalyptic visions (chapters 7–12). The four beasts and the Son of Man (7); the ram and the goat (8); the seventy weeks (9); the great vision of the final conflict and resurrection (10–12).
The ram and the goat. Medo-Persia and Greece; the little horn of the goat (widely read as Antiochus Epiphanes).
Before it: Court narratives, chapters 1–6.
The whole shape of Daniel→The world behind this chapter
Daniel 8The history
The language switches back to Hebrew here after the long Aramaic stretch, and the vision narrows. Chapter 7 showed four beasts; this one shows two animals and names them outright, the ram is Media and Persia, the goat is Greece.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The setting is a detail worth pausing on. Daniel sees himself in Susa, by the Ulai. When the vision was given, Susa belonged to Elam; within a generation it was one of the great capitals of the Persian empire, its huge pillared audience hall the place where kings received the world. Later it is where Nehemiah hears the news about Jerusalem and where Esther becomes queen.
The ram with two unequal horns fits Persia exactly: a partnership of Medes and Persians in which the Persian side rose second and grew larger. The goat that crosses the earth without touching the ground, with one great horn between his eyes, fits Alexander of Macedon, who crossed into Asia in 334 BC and had the Persian empire four years later. The horn breaks at the height of his strength and four come up in its place, Alexander died at thirty-two and his generals carved the empire into pieces.
Out of one of those pieces comes a small horn that grows, stops the daily sacrifice, and defiles the sanctuary. History records a ruler who did precisely that: Antiochus IV, king of the Seleucid share, who in 167 BC banned the Jewish sacrifices and set up a pagan altar in the Jerusalem temple.
This chapter is where the dating argument concentrates. Because the detail is so exact, one school treats the book as written after those events, in the second century BC. The book presents itself as a sixth-century BC record and MannaFest reads it that way, prophecy that came true. The dispute is real and unsettled, and something does rest on it: the seventy-weeks chronology of chapter 9 only works on the earlier date.
What it meant to them
Whenever a reader first met this chapter, its effect was the same: the sanctuary would be defiled, and God had said so before it happened, and He also said how long, the vision ends with the sanctuary cleansed.
Daniel's own reaction is worth noticing. He faints and is sick for days. This was not comfort to him. It was the news that the trouble was not over when Babylon ended, and that the God who governs it had already fixed its limit.
Sources cited
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation)
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Daniel
The structure of this chapter
People1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. The ram, the goat, and the great horn broken at its height
1. (vv. 1-2)
Daniel 8:1
“In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar,.... Which some say (t) was the last year of his reign; but, according to Ptolemy's canon, he reigned seventeen years; and so says Josephus (u); however, this, as well as the preceding vision, were seen before what happened recorded in the "fifth" and "sixth" chapters. The following vision was seen by Daniel, according to Bishop Usher (w) and Dean Prideaux (x) in the year of the world 3451 A.M., and 553 B.C.”
Daniel 8:2
“I saw in a vision - Daniel was at this time in Shushan, which appears to have been a strong place, where the kings of Persia had their summer residence. It was the capital of the province of Elam or the Elymais; which province was most probably added to the Chaldean territories by Nebuchadnezzar; see Jer 49:34, Jer 49:35. Here was Daniel’s ordinary residence; and though here at this time, he, in vision, saw himself on the banks of the river Ulai. This is the same as the river Euleus, which divided Shushan or Susiana from Elymais.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar: The vision comes in the third year of Belshazzar, two years before the writing on the wall that ends his reign, and Daniel is carried in vision to Shushan by the river Ulai, a city he had likely never seen, which will become the winter capital of the Persian kings a lifetime after this vision is given. The bench marks the irony the text does not: God shows Daniel the empire's future seat before Persia has taken a single province from Babylon. The vision is Daniel's own, seen after the first vision of chapter seven, and he records it as an eyewitness, even unto me Daniel.
2. (vv. 3-4)
Daniel 8:4
“I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward,.... That is, with his horns, as rams do; these kingdoms using all their power and strength, wealth and riches, in fighting with and subduing nations, and pushing on their conquests in all parts here mentioned; to the west, Babylon, Syria, Asia, and part of Greece; to the north, Iberia, Albania, Armenia, Scythia, Colchis, and the inhabitants of the Caspian sea; and to the south, Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and India; all which places were conquered by Cyrus and his successors.”
a ram which had two horns: The ram with two horns, one higher than the other and the higher coming up last, is read by the whole bench as Media and Persia joined, the last-rising horn the dominant partner, since Persia overtook the older Media within the union and gave the empire its lasting name in history. The ram pushes westward, northward, and southward, the very compass of Cyrus's conquests, and none could stand before him or deliver out of his hand until a fiercer beast comes from the west. Nothing in the text points the ram eastward, since no rival power lay in that direction to resist him.
3. (vv. 5-8)
Daniel 8:5
“This was Alexander the Great, the son of Philip king of Macedonia. He came from the west, from Greece, which lay west from Persia. He fetched a great compass with his army: he came upon the face of the whole earth; he did in effect conquer the world, and then sat down and wept because there was not another world to be conquered.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Daniel 8:6
“And he came to the ram - This and the following verse give an account of the overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander. And ran unto him in the fury of his power - The conflicts between the Greeks and the Persians were excessively severe. Alexander first vanquished the generals of Darius, at the river Granicus, in Phrygia; he next attacked and totally routed Darius, at the straits of Issus, in Cilicia; and afterwards at the plains of Arbela, in Assyria.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 8:6
“Alexander with his victorious army attacked the kingdom of Persia, an army consisting of no more than 30,000 foot and 5000 horse. He ran unto him, to surprise him ere he could get intelligence of his motions, in the fury of his power.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Daniel 8:7
“And I saw him, come close unto the ram - The ram standing on the banks of the Ulai, and in the very heart of the empire. This representation is designed undoubtedly to denote that the Grecian power would attack the Persian in its own dominions. Perhaps the vision was represented at the place which would be the capital of the empire in order to denote this. And he was moved with choler against him - (i. e., the ram).” With wrath or anger. That is, he acted as if he were furiously enraged. This is not an improper representation.”
Daniel 8:8
“Next after the male goat was exalted, "his great horn was shattered, and four horns arose under him to the four winds of heaven." [Daniel 8:8] For after Alexander ruled all the land of Persia and subjected them, later he died, dividing his kingdom to his four Chiefs as is shown above, that is to Seleucus, to Demetrius, to Ptolemy, and to Philip, from whom one horn was exalted and grew great unto the power of heaven.”
Hippolytus of Rome· written before 235· Commentary on Daniel 4.26.5-6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 8:8
“The he-goat waxed very strong - He had subdued nearly the whole of the then known world. The great horn was broken - Alexander died in the height of his conquests, when he was but about thirty-three years of age. His natural brother, Philip Aridaeus, and his two sons, Alexander Aegus and Hercules, kept up the show and name of the Macedonian kingdom for a time; but they were all murdered within fifteen years; and thus the great horn, the Macedonian kingdom, was broken, Alexander’s family being now cut off.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
an he goat came from the west: The he goat comes from the west and touches not the ground, the commentators reading the speed of Alexander's campaign into the picture itself, a conqueror who crossed from Greece to India in roughly a decade. The notable horn between his eyes is Alexander himself, and his fury against the ram pictures the destruction of the Persian empire, the two horns broken and the ram trampled with none to deliver it. When the great horn is broken at the height of his own strength, in plain history the sudden death of Alexander at thirty-two, four horns rise toward the four winds in his place, the four generals among whom the empire is divided, none of them his own sons.
B. The little horn and 2,300 evenings and mornings
1. (vv. 9-12)
Daniel 8:9
“And out of one of them, came forth a little horn - Emblematic of new power that should spring up. Compare the notes at Dan 7:8. This little horn sprang, up out of one of the others; it did not spring up in the midst of the others as the little horn, in Dan 7:8, did among the ten others. This seemed to grow out of one of the four, and the meaning cannot be misunderstood.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 8:9
“Hence the need of prophecy to prepare them for Antiochus. The struggle of the Maccabees was a fruit of Daniel's prophecy (1 Maccabees 2:59). He is the forerunner of the final Antichrist, standing in the same relation to the first advent of Christ that Antichrist does to His second coming.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Daniel 8:10
“The host of heaven - The Jewish hierarchy. The stars, the priests and Levites. The powers or host of heaven are probably intended by our Lord, Mat 24:29, to signify the whole Jewish hierarchy.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Daniel 8:11
“He not only opposes God's ancient people, but also God Himself. daily sacrifice--offered morning and evening (Ex 29:38, 39). taken away--by Antiochus (1 Maccabees 1:20-50). sanctuary . . . cast down--Though robbed of its treasures, it was not strictly "cast down" by Antiochus. So that a fuller accomplishment is future.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 8:11
“Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host - Grotius, Ephraem the Syrian, and others, understand this of Onias the high priest, as the chief officer of the holy people. Lengerke supposes that it means God himself. This interpretation is the more probable; and the idea in the phrase “prince of the host” is, that as God is the ruler of the host of heaven - leading on the constellations, and marshalling the stars, so he may be regarded as the ruler of the holy army here below - the ministers of religion, and his people.”
Daniel 8:12
“But transgression was not at the full (Da 8:23) under Antiochus; for Onias the high priest administered the laws in godliness at the time (2 Maccabees 3:1). Therefore the "transgression" must refer to that of the Jews hereafter restored to Palestine in unbelief. the truth--the worship of the true God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
came forth a little horn: Out of one of the four horns comes a little horn that grows toward the south, the east, and the pleasant land, the land of Israel, and the bench identifies him with near unanimity as Antiochus the fourth, called Epiphanes by himself and Epimanes, the madman, by those he ruled. He magnifies himself even to the prince of the host, takes away the daily sacrifice, and casts down the place of the sanctuary, the desecration of the Jerusalem temple that provoked the Maccabean revolt. An host is given him against the sacrifice by reason of transgression, the text naming Israel's own unfaithfulness as the occasion even while the horn's cruelty is condemned in full.
2. (vv. 13-14)
Daniel 8:13
“The angels concern themselves in the affairs of the church, and enquire concerning them, if, as here, concerning its temporal salvations, much more do they desire to look into the great salvation, 1 Pet. i. One saint spoke of the thing, and another enquired concerning it. Thus John, who lay in Christ's bosom, was beckoned to by Peter to ask Christ a question, John xiii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Daniel 8:14
“Then - Just so long it was, from the defection of the people, procured by Menelaus, the high-priest, to the cleansing of the sanctuary, and the re-establishment of religion among them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How long shall be the vision: Two holy ones converse over Daniel's head, one asking how long the trampling of the sanctuary will last, and the answer comes as two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings, after which the sanctuary shall be cleansed. The commentators divide over the count itself, some reading it as twenty-three hundred full days, near six and a half years, others as twenty-three hundred half-sacrifices, morning and evening, near eleven hundred and fifty days, and both figures are named with their holders rather than settled here. The tradition ties the cleansing to the Maccabean rededication of the temple, later kept as Hanukkah, though the exact reckoning of days remains a question among the bench itself.
C. Gabriel sent to explain the vision of the endvv. 15-19
sought for the meaning: Daniel seeks the vision's meaning and one with the appearance of a man stands before him, then a voice between the banks of Ulai names him: Gabriel, make this man to understand. This is the first time any angel is named in Scripture, a distinction verified against the floor, Gabriel appearing again at 9:21 and then at Luke 1:19 and 1:26 to announce the births of John and Jesus. Daniel is addressed as son of man, a title the bench is careful to distinguish from the Son of man of chapter seven, here simply the messenger's address to a mortal, and Daniel falls on his face and is set upright to hear that the vision belongs to the time of the end.
Daniel 8:15
“And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision,.... The whole of the preceding vision, concerning the ram, he goat, and little horn, and what were done by them; the prophet not only affirms he saw this vision, but repeats the affirmation, expressing his own name, partly for the sake of emphasis, and partly for the greater confirmation of his words; wherefore it was a most impudent thing Porphyry to say, that the true Daniel never saw this vision; but what is here related was written after Antiochus's reign, and falsely ascribed to him.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 8:15
“One in the appearance of a man (who, some think, was Christ himself, for who besides could command angels?) orders Gabriel to make Daniel understand this vision. Sometimes God is pleased to make use of the ministration of angels, not only to protect his children, but to instruct them, to serve the kind intentions, not only of his providence, but of his grace.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Daniel 8:17
“So he came near where I stood - He had seen him, evidently, at first in the distance. He now drew near to Daniel, that he might communicate with him the more readily. And when, he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face - Doubtless perceiving that he was a celestial being. See the notes at Rev 1:17. Compare Eze 1:28, and Dan 10:8-9. He was completely overpowered by the presence of the celestial stranger, and sank to the ground.”
2 more voices on this verse
Daniel 8:17
“The first definite person we find named in Scripture "son of man" is, speaking at the moment from memory, Daniel. And after him, Ezekiel. They were prophets in the captivity, so far as our researches go in the undisputed books that pass currently as inspired, there is no one named by this title.… It was, as we think, because the people of captivity were sinners that Daniel alone, to their reproach, because they preserved the dignity of human nature, made according to the image and the likeness, was addressed as the son of man.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· SELECTIONS IN PSALMSpatristic
Daniel 8:17
“Or thus he preaches humility to him; though he be admitted to converse with angels, he must not be puffed up with it, but must remember that he is a son of man. Or perhaps this title puts honour upon him: the Messiah was lately called the Son of man ( ch. vii. 13 ), and Daniel is akin to him, and is a figure of him as a prophet and one greatly beloved.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Daniel 8:18
“Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground - Overcome and prostrate with the vision. That is, he had sunk down stupified or senseless. See Dan 10:9. His strength had been entirely taken away by the vision. There is nothing improbable in this, that the sudden appearance of a celestial vision, or a heavenly being, should take away the strength.”
Daniel 8:19
“And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation - In the future time when the Divine indignation shall be manifest toward the Hebrew people; to wit, by suffering the evils to come upon them which Antiochus would inflict. It is everywhere represented that these calamities would occur as a proof of the Divine displeasure on account of their sins. Compare Dan 9:24; Dan 11:35; 2 Macc. 7:33. For at the time appointed the end shall be - It shall not always continue.”
1 more voice on this verse
Daniel 8:19
“Let it be laid up for a comfort to those who shall live to see these calamitous times that there shall be an end of them; the indignation shall cease ( Isa. x. 25 ); it shall be overpast, Isa. xxvi. It may intermit and return again, but the last end shall be glorious; good will follow it, nay, and good will be brought out of it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
D. Media, Persia, Greece, and the king of fierce countenance
1. (vv. 20-22)
Daniel 8:21
“And the rough goat - See the notes at Dan 8:5. In Dan 8:5 he is called a he-goat. Here the word rough or hairy - שׂעיר s'â‛ı̂yr - is applied to it. This appellation is often given to a goat Lev 4:24; Lev 16:9; Gen 37:31. It would seem that either term - a he-goat, or a hairy-goat - would serve to designate the animal, and it is probable that the terms were used indiscriminately. Is the king of Grecia - Represents the king of Greece.”
Daniel 8:22
“Now that being broken,.... That is, the great horn Alexander, the first king of the Grecian monarchy; whose death, either by drunkenness, or by poison, is here expressed by being "broken".”
are the kings of Media and Persia: The angel now gives the interpretation the text itself states without ambiguity: the two-horned ram is the kings of Media and Persia, the rough goat is the king of Grecia, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king, Alexander by the bench's unanimous reading. When that horn is broken, four kingdoms rise out of the one nation, but not in his power, the successors ruling as heirs of his conquest rather than of his own line. The commentators note that Scripture here interprets its own symbol, leaving no room to dispute what the ram and the goat represent, whatever remains debated in the horn that follows.
2. (vv. 23-25)
Daniel 8:23
“And in the latter time of their kingdom - When it shall be drawing to an end. All these powers were ultimately absorbed in the Roman power; and the meaning here is, that taking the time from the period of their formation - the division of the empire after the battle of Ipsus (see the notes at Dan 8:8), until the time when all would be swallowed up in the Roman dominion, what is here stated - to wit, the rise of Antiochus - would be in the latter portion of that period.”
Daniel 8:24
“He shall act by the power of Satan, who shall then be permitted to work through him in unrestricted license, such as he has not now (Re 13:2); hence the ten kingdoms shall give the beast their power (2Th 2:9-12; Re 17:13). prosper and practise--prosper in all that he attempts (Da 8:12). holy people--His persecutions are especially directed against the Jews.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Daniel 8:24
“Not by his own power - Not by any heroick deeds, but by making use of the Jewish factions, through the divine commission to punish a backsliding nation; and by means of Eumenes and Attalus, by whose help he got up to this height.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Daniel 8:24
“But not by his own power - The strength of the other kingdoms consisted in themselves; but the Roman empire, as a horn or kingdom of the goat, was not mighty by its own power - was not strong by virtue of the goat, but drew its nourishment and strength from Rome and Italy. There grew the trunk and body of the tree; though the branches extended over Greece, Asia, Syria, and Egypt. - Bp. Newton. Shall destroy wonderfully - In the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans ninety-seven thousand Jews were made captives, and eleven hundred thousand were slain.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Daniel 8:25
"A spoiler at noon-day." also . . . against the Prince of princes--not merely against the Jews (Da 8:11; 11:36). broken without hand--by God's special visitation. The stone "cut out of the mountain without hands," that is, Christ is to smite the world power image on his feet (Da 2:34), that is, in its last development (compare Da 7:11).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
a king of fierce countenance: In the latter time of their kingdom a king of fierce countenance, understanding dark sentences, stands up, the bench again reading Antiochus continued from the little horn of verse nine, mighty in power that is not his own, prospering by craft and destroying many by a peace that hides his hand. He stands up against the Prince of princes, God himself by the reading the older writers give the title, yet he shall be broken without hand, the same phrase the stone of chapter two used of the kingdom that crushes the image, echoing 2:34 and 2:45. The commentators mark the phrase as the chapter's real conclusion: no human weapon ends this king, only the judgment of the one he defied.
3. (vv. 26-27)
Daniel 8:26
“He shall cause craft to prosper - They subdued as many by their diplomatic skill and political intrigues as they did by the sword. He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes - Against Christ, for it was by the Roman authority that he was condemned to death and crucified; and their persecutions had nearly destroyed the Christian religion; but the house was founded on a rock. But he shall be broken without hand - The tide was turned by the invisible hand of God; and thus heathen Rome was overcome, and converted to Christianity.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Daniel 8:27
“And I Daniel fainted - Hebrew, “I was “ - נהייתי nı̂heyēythı̂y. Compare Dan 2:1. The meaning, according to Gesenius (“Lexicon”), is, “I was done up, and was sick:” - I was done over, etc. Perhaps the “reason” of his using this verb here is, that he represents himself as “having been sick,” and then as fainting away, as if his life had departed. The Latin Vulgate renders it langui. Theodotion, ἐκοιμήθην ekoimēthēn - “ was laid in my bed.” The general idea is plain, that he was overcome and prostrate at the effect of the vision.”
shut thou up the vision: The vision of the evening and the morning is declared true, and Daniel is told to shut it up, for it belongs to many days yet to come, a sealing the commentators set beside Daniel's own sealed book at 12:4, the same prophet given visions kept for a later reading. Daniel's response is bodily rather than merely intellectual: he faints and is sick certain days, then rises to do the king's business, astonished at what he has seen. The chapter ends with an admission rare in prophecy, none understood it, the older writers noting that even the seer himself is left short of full comprehension of his own vision.
This page carries no textual note on Daniel 8. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Daniel; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel; John Calvin, Commentary on the Prophet Daniel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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