STUDIES IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL

December 17, 2021

DANIEL’S VISION OF THE RAM AND HE-GOAT. DAN. 8:1-14

“Daniel 8:1-12:13 was written in Hebrew, focusing on God’s people during the times of the Gentiles.” HCSB “With this chapter the Hebrew part of the book begins and continues to be the language of the remainder; the visions relating wholly to the Jews and Jerusalem. The scene here narrows from world-wide prophecies to those affecting the one covenant-people in the five centuries between the exile and the advent. Antichrist, like Christ, has a more immediate future as well as one more remote. The vision, Ch. 8, begins, and that, Ch. 10–12, concludes the account of the Antichrist of the third kingdom. Between the two visions Ch. 9 is inserted, as to Messiah and the covenant-people at the end of the half-millennium (seventy weeks of years).” Fausset A. R

  1. Dan. 8:1-2. In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision—a higher kind of revelation than a dream. after that which appeared unto me at the first—that in ch. 7:1, which Daniel saw “in the first year of Belshazzar.” 2. when I saw … I was by the river of Ulai…” he receives a vision near another river, the Hiddekel. So Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:1) at the Chebar. Perhaps because synagogues used to be built near rivers, as before praying they washed their hands in the water (Rosenmüller). (Ps. 137:1.)” Fausset A. R
  2. Dan. 8:3 Then I lifted mine eyes… there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. The “one horn higher than the other” answers to the bear “raising itself on one side” (cf. note, ch. 7:5).
  3. Dan. 8:4. “I saw the ram pushing westward. Persia conquered, westward, Babylon, Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor. northward—Colchis, Armenia, Iberia, and the dwellers on the Caspian sea. southward—Judea, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya; also India, under Darius. He does not say eastward, for the Persians themselves came from the east (Isa. 46:11, “a ravenous bird from the east”). but he did according to his will—(ch. 11:3, 16; cf. ch. 5:19).” Fausset A. R pushing. Dan. 5:30; 7:5; 11:2, Is. 45:1–5. neither. ver. 7. Job 10:7, Ps. 7:2; 50:22. Mic. 5:8. but. Dan. 5:19; 11:3–16, 36, Is. 10:13, 14.
  4. Dan. 8:5-8. “An he-goat came from the west, on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground—Græco-Macedonia. the goat had a notable horn—Alexander. “Touched not the ground” implies the incredible swiftness of his conquests; he overran the world in less than twelve years. The he-goat answers to the leopard (ch. 7:6).” Fausset A. R. “The goat struck the ram and shattered his two horns, indicating the Greek Empire’s crushing defeat of Medo-Persia (331 b.c.).” HCSB
    He waxed very great De. 31:20, Est. 9:4, Jer. 5:27, Eze. 16:7. When he was strong ch. 4:31; 5:20. 2Ch. 26:16, Ps. 82:6, 7. Eze. 28:9. the great, horn was broken ver. 22; ch. 7:6; 11:4. “Although the male goat became very great, at the height of his power the large horn was shattered. This refers to Alexander’s sudden death at the peak of his greatness (323 b.c.). His kingdom was divided by four of his generals (Cassander over Macedon and Greece, Lysimachus over Thrace and Asia Minor, Seleucus over Syria and Babylon, Ptolemy over Egypt), described in the vision as four notable horns” HCSB