Daniel 8
The book of Daniel was, in the purposes of God, written in two languages, Hebrew, the usual language of the Old Testament, and Chaldee or Aramaic. From chapter 2:4 to the close of chapter 7, Chaldee was used, no doubt because what is therein contained directly concerned the Gentiles in whose hands the government of the world was placed. The remainder of the book was written in Hebrew, as primarily for God’s earthly people.
Shushan or Susa (verse 2) was a summer capital of Babylonia over 200 miles east of Babylon; it became the capital of the Persian empire, as may be seen from the book of Esther.
Chapter 8 takes up again the second and third empires which were represented in the 7th chapter in the figures of a bear and a leopard; here they are seen as a ram and a he goat, and their names are given in verses 20 and 21. Evidently the two horns of the ram represent Media and Persia; the victorious campaigns of Cyrus the Great, and in measure, some of the later kings are referred to in verse 4. Darius Histaspis, one of them, carried the Persian banner into Macedonia, and his son Xerxes afterward set out to conquer Greece but failed. The military expeditions greatly angered the peoples of those lands, and long afterward, under Alexander the Great, they attacked the Persians with irresistible force and broke their rule (verses 5-7).
Alexander’s early death, and the partition of the Grecian Empire among foil-of his military leaders (verse 8) leads to the mention of Antiochus Epiphanes. This “little horn” in B. C. 175 became the ruler over what is now Turkey; he was called “king of the North” because his territory was north of the land of Israel. More of his history is given in chapter 11; the Jews of Palestine suffered greatly from him, and the casting down of some of “the host of heaven” and “the stars” refers to his treatment of principal men of Israel, who were degraded and treated with great cruelty.
Verse 11 and the first half of the 12Th form a parenthesis; the marginal reading, “from him”, should be substituted for “by him”; the reference is to the Prince of the host, to God, and the sacrifices of the temple rebuilt by the returned remnant (Ezra chapters 3-6). “An host was given against” the daily sacrifice, means that a time of distress was appointed; it was “by reason of transgression”—because of the sinful ways of the earthly people of God. This king’s reign came to an end in B. C. 164.
Verses 13 to 26 make clear that the conduct of this wicked enemy of the Jews was a foreshadowing of the ways of another king, occupying the same territory when the Jews are again settled in their own land (before the Lord’s appearing), and this is the reason why Antiochus is mentioned. The final fulfillment of the vision is to be “at the time of the end”, “when the transgressors are come to the full”.
In that time, which many things lead us to believe to be near now, a bold king of the north, understanding riddles or wiles (verse 23), whose power will be mighty, (supported by an unnamed country or countries stronger than his own) will, after lulling them into a false security, attack the Jews in Palestine, opposing even the Lord Himself, Who at that time will appear on earth. This king is the Assyrian of Isaiah 10 and elsewhere, to be used of God for the chastisement of His people and afterward destroyed.
ML 07/19/1936