Discovery BoxDaniel 8:3-10
Context8:3 I looked up 1 and saw 2 a 3 ram with two horns standing at the canal. Its two horns were both long, 4 but one was longer than the other. The longer one was coming up after the shorter one. 8:4 I saw that the ram was butting westward, northward, and southward. No animal 5 was able to stand before it, and there was none who could deliver from its power. 6 It did as it pleased and acted arrogantly. 7
8:5 While I was contemplating all this, 8 a male goat 9 was coming from the west over the surface of all the land 10 without touching the ground. This goat had a conspicuous horn 11 between its eyes. 8:6 It came to the two-horned ram that I had seen standing beside the canal and rushed against it with raging strength. 12 8:7 I saw it approaching the ram. It went into a fit of rage against the ram 13 and struck it 14 and broke off its two horns. The ram had no ability to resist it. 15 The goat hurled the ram 16 to the ground and trampled it. No one could deliver the ram from its power. 17 8:8 The male goat acted even more arrogantly. But no sooner had the large horn become strong than it was broken, and there arose four conspicuous horns 18 in its place, 19 extending toward the four winds of the sky. 20
8:9 From one of them came a small horn. 21 But it grew to be very big, toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. 22 8:10 It grew so big it reached the army 23 of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars 24 to the ground, where it trampled them.
[8:3] 1 tn Heb “lifted my eyes.”
[8:3] 3 tn Heb “one.” The Hebrew numerical adjective occasionally functions like an English indefinite article. See GKC 401 §125.b.
[8:3] 4 tn Heb “high” (also “higher” later in this verse).
[8:4] 6 tn Heb “hand.” So also in v. 7.
[8:4] 7 tn In the Hiphil the Hebrew verb גָּדַל (gadal, “to make great; to magnify”) can have either a positive or a negative sense. For the former, used especially of God, see Ps 126:2, 3; Joel 2:21. In this chapter (8:4, 8, 11, 25) the word has a pejorative sense, describing the self-glorification of this king. The sense seems to be that of vainly assuming one’s own superiority through deliberate hubris.
[8:5] 8 tn The words “all this” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.
[8:5] 9 tn Heb “and behold, a he-goat of the goats.”
[8:5] 10 tn Or “of the whole earth” (NAB, ASV, NASB, NRSV).
[8:5] 11 tn Heb “a horn of vision” [or “conspicuousness”], i.e., “a conspicuous horn,” one easily seen.
[8:6] 12 tn Heb “the wrath of its strength.”
[8:7] 15 tn Heb “stand before him.”
[8:7] 16 tn Heb “he hurled him.” The referents of both pronouns (the male goat and the ram) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
[8:7] 17 sn The goat of Daniel’s vision represents Greece; the large horn represents Alexander the Great. The ram stands for Media-Persia. Alexander’s rapid conquest of the Persians involved three battles of major significance which he won against overwhelming odds: Granicus (334
[8:8] 18 tn The word “horns” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.
[8:8] 19 sn The four conspicuous horns refer to Alexander’s successors. After his death, Alexander’s empire was divided up among four of his generals: Cassander, who took Macedonia and Greece; Lysimachus, who took Thrace and parts of Asia Minor; Seleucus, who took Syria and territory to its east; and Ptolemy, who took control of Egypt.
[8:8] 20 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
[8:9] 21 sn This small horn is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who controlled the Seleucid kingdom from ca. 175-164
[8:9] 22 sn The expression the beautiful land (Heb. הַצֶּבִי [hatsÿvi] = “the beauty”) is a cryptic reference to the land of Israel. Cf. 11:16, 41, where it is preceded by the word אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”).
[8:10] 23 tn Traditionally, “host.” The term refers to God’s heavenly angelic assembly, which he sometimes leads into battle as an army.
[8:10] 24 sn In prescientific Israelite thinking the stars were associated with the angelic members of God’s heavenly assembly. See Judg 5:20; Job 38:7; Isa 40:26. In west Semitic mythology the stars were members of the high god’s divine assembly (see Isa 14:13).
