Daniel 8
Daniel’s vision of deadly days ahead
Vision of a killer two-horned ram
1I, Daniel, had another vision about two years later. It took place when King Belshazzar was in the third [1] year of his reign over Babylon. 2I saw myself in Susa, [2] capital of Babylon’s Elam province. I was by the Ulai River. [3]3I saw a ram standing there by the water. It had two long horns, but one was longer than the other. The short horn was the first to emerge. The longer one developed later. 4I watched the ram charge west, then north, and then south. [4] No animals were able to stop it. When the ram charged, nothing could save whatever was in its path. The ram grew stronger, and it did whatever it wanted.
Vision of a killer unicorn goat
5But then I saw a male goat on the western horizon. It was a unicorn goat, with just one horn between its eyes. I saw it gliding across the land without touching the ground.6This unicorn goat charged the ram with savage force. 7Enraged, the unicorn goat plowed into the ram, snapping off both ram’s long horns and then stomping it into the ground. Nothing around could have saved that ram.
8The male unicorn goat grew huge. But at the peak of it’s power, the goat’s horn broke off. Four other horns grew up in its place. Those four horns pointed in the four directions of the four winds: north, south, east, and west. 9One horn grew another horn—a horn from a horn. It started small but grew large, extending toward the south, and the east, and west toward our beautiful homeland. [5]
10This towering horn reached the people of heaven and attacked them, throwing some to the ground, trampling them, 11and disgracing their leader. It put an end to the daily sacrificial offerings and captured the place of worship. [6] 12Its evil power was strong enough to kill the truth and end the sacrificial system. Nothing could stop it.
Angels in a conversation
13Then two holy ones spoke to each other. The first one asked, “How long will this go on—these days of destruction? There are no daily sacrifices, no access to the place of worship, and no respect for the people who are trampled into the dirt.”14The other answered, “This will go on for 2,300 days and night. [7] Then people will worship again at the Temple.”
Angel Gabriel terrifies Daniel
15After I, Daniel, saw this happen, I stood there trying to figure out what I had just seen. Then suddenly someone appeared. He looked like a human—a man.16I heard someone speaking. His voice came from the direction of the Ulai River. He said, “Gabriel, [8] help this man understand what’s going on here.”
17Gabriel walked over to me. It scared me so much that I dropped flat on the ground. He said, “Dear human, [9] what you saw is about the timing of when this ends.” [10]
18In this vision, I saw myself fall asleep, face to the ground, while Gabriel was still talking to me. 19He said, “Hey, pay attention. I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen later, when all this violence and anger come to an end. That time is set, marked on the calendar. 20The ram you saw with two horns represents Media and Persia. 21And that unicorn goat represents the king of Greece. 22The four horns that came later represent four kingdoms that come later. They will grow out of the Greek kingdom, but they won’t have much power.
When the bad guy breaks
23When their day on the throne is done
And they’ve filled their bucket with sin
A bold and fierce king will come,
Polished, savvy, and sly.
He will deliver devastation.
And he’ll get good at it.
He’ll kill the powerful
And the people devoted to God.
25He will succeed at what he does
Because he will be a gifted liar.
He’ll think a lot of himself.
He will strike suddenly, killing many.
And he’ll even target the leader.
But he will break, and it won’t be a human who breaks him.
”Now, don’t tell anyone”
26So now, you know the vision of the evenings and mornings to come. Everything I’ve told you is true. Now, don’t tell anyone about this. It doesn’t involve them. It’s about what’s coming a long time from now.”27This vision left me, Daniel, exhausted and sick. I stayed in for several days before I went back to work for the king. After all the explanation, I remained confused by the vision. I couldn’t figure it out.
Footnotes
This was in about 552 BC, give or take a few years. Belshazzar was a co-regent, according to ancient Babylonian records, not a king. He was more of an Associate King. His father, Nabonidus, was king. But he preferred to live in Arabia. His son Belshazzar served as co-regent from 555-539 BC, until Persian invaders from what is now Iran captured the city of Babylon and executed him. He was 41 years old.
Susa was a city roughly 200 miles (320 km) east of Babylon, in what is now Persia. It would later become the capital of the Persian Empire that swallowed up the Babylonian Empire and expanded far beyond it, stretching from Greece in the west to India in the east.
There was a hand-dug canal by the city, Ulai Canal, according to Persian records pressed into clay and written in wedge-shaped cuneiform letters.
The angel Gabriel says in 8:20 that the two-horned ram represents the Medes and Persians. West, north, and south are directions the Medes and Persians advanced when they swallowed up the Babylonian Empire.
The Hebrew word paraphrased here as “beautiful homeland,” is sebi, in the original Hebrew language. Sebi can mean: beautiful, glorious, splendor. In context, it seems like the writer may have been talking about what used to be Israel.
Some students of the Bible and history say this sounds like the little horn with the big mouth in Daniel 7:8, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He was a Greek ruler of Syria. And he invaded the Jewish homeland, sacrificed to pagan gods in the Jewish Temple, and tried to erase the Jewish religion. He sparked a revolt, and the Jewish people drove him out. The “people of heaven” (verse 10) may represent the Jewish people of God and their leader the high priest.
“Days and nights” are more literally “mornings and evenings,” which were the times of day when Jerusalem Temple priests offered the daily sacrifices on behalf of the nation.
Gabriel is the angel that the New Testament book of Luke says announced the births of John the Baptist and his younger relative, by a few months, Jesus (Luke 1:26-27). Gabriel said he reported directly to God (Luke 1:19). Daniel will later write that the angel Gabriel fought a battle for 21 days before the angel Michael arrived as backup (Daniel 10:13). Ancient Jewish tradition said there are seven archangels, which some students of the Bible associate with the book of Revelation’s angelic leaders: seven angels who stand before God, and who were given seven trumpets (Revelation 8:2). Jewish tradition says the seven are called Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sariel, Gabriel, and Remiel.
“Human” in the original Hebrew language is ben adam, more literally translated “son of man.” This is a title Jesus used a lot to describe himself. In the Jewish Bible, the phrase contains hints of divinity in some passages and humanity in others—such as this passage. That seemed to make it a fit title for Jesus, whom Christians teach was both divine and human.
“The timing of when this ends” is often translated “end times” or “time of the end.” In Hebrew, those words are et qes, or “time end.” So, is it about the timing of some event 2,000 years ago or more? Is it about the end of humanity. Or might it be both? Someone needed to ask Gabriel follow up questions. Some scholars say Daniel’s choice of words describing the “wrath” or period of violence toward the Jews suggests it started with the exile, when Daniel and others were marched out of their homeland and into captivity in the 500’s BC. This period of oppression continued beyond the prophesied 70 years of exile, some say, and through Antiochus IV Epiphanes’s persecution of the Jews in the 100’s BC.
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