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The Vision Itself
v. 1. In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, two years after Daniel had had the vision of the four monarchies, a vision appeared unto me, even unto me, Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first, that is, in addition to that other important prophetic vision which he had recorded in the previous chapter. It is evident that this vision did not come to Daniel in a dream, but that he was awake and conscious while this information came to him.
v. 2. And I saw in a vision, in a state of ecstasy; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan, or Susa, in the palace, which is in the province of Elam, for Susa was the capital of this province during the Babylonian supremacy, while under Persian reign it was located in the satrapy of Susiana; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai, or Eulaeus, on which Susa was situated. Daniel evidently, in his capacity as one of the foremost officials of the empire, visited the various provinces from time to time, or he may even have had a winter home in this city.
v. 3. Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river, probably to the east of it, a ram, not in a flock, but alone, which had two horns; and the two horns were high, both of them expressive of royalty and power, but one was higher than the other, and the higher, the one possessing the greater power, came up last, it was later in point of time.
v. 4. I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward, to subdue all the countries located in these directions, so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand, his power, for the time being, was absolute; but he did according to his will and became great, so that the empire which he represented became a world power.
v. 5. And as I was considering, observing very closely everything that transpired, behold, an he-goat came from the west, from Europe, across Asia Minor, on the face of the whole earth, sweeping along over all the intervening countries, and touched not the ground, that is, his advance was so rapid that it was like a flight; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes, in the midst of his forehead, so that his whole force was behind it.
v. 6. And he came to the ram that had two horns, not stopping for any consideration, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power, in irresistible, mighty rage.
v. 7. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, with sudden, explosive anger, and smote the ram, in a fierce overthrow, and brake his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him, so that the complete overthrow of the ram was speedily accomplished; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand, all the resources that he commanded availing him nothing.
v. 8. Therefore the he-goat waxed very great, his power developed mightily; and when he was strong, just as he reached the highest point of his might, the great horn was broken, the unity of the attacking power was disrupted with the death of its leader: and for it came up four notable ones, four leaders, who divided the power among themselves, toward the four winds of heaven.
v. 9. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, sprouting in a diminutive manner, like the branches in the prongs of an antelope, which waxed exceeding great toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land, Judea, the glorious land, the land of God's chosen people.
v. 10. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven, to the congregation of the Lord's people, for the Jews were at that time representatives of the Lord's Church on earth; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them, presuming, in its pride, to wage warfare even against the kingdom of the Lord.
v. 11. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, placing himself on a level with the most high God, with the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, that is, he interfered with the worship of the true God as then carried on in the Temple, and the place of His Sanctuary was cast down, profaned with blasphemous behavior.
v. 12. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, that is, "warfare was inaugurated against the daily sacrifice with outrage," with idolatrous worship by the heathen ruler represented by the last horn, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced and prospered, it accomplished this much, it was successful by divine permission: God permitted the profaning to go on for some time.
v. 13. Then I heard one saint, one of the Lord's angels, speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, as they were conversing, the interruption being made in the interest of Daniel, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, that is, how long would the subject of this vision, the destruction of the Lord's worship, continue, and the transgression of desolation, the horrible transgression which had just been described, to give both the Sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? so that the Church of God, then represented by the nation of the Jews returned from Babylon, would be made desolate and be hindered from spreading.
v. 14. And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, literally, "evening-mornings"; then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed, or "justified," which may mean deconsecrated. The figures in the vision are strangely interwoven with direct statements, which anticipate, in a measure, the interpretation given in the second part of the chapter.