Daniel 8:9-11

8:9 From one of them came a small horn. ¹  But it grew to be very big, toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. ²  8:10 It grew so big it reached the army ³  of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars ⁴  to the ground, where it trampled them. 8:11 It also acted arrogantly against the Prince of the army, ⁵  from whom ⁶  the daily sacrifice was removed and whose sanctuary ⁷  was thrown down.

[8:9]  ¹ sn This small horn is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who controlled the Seleucid kingdom from ca. 175-164 B.C. Antiochus was extremely hostile toward the Jews and persecuted them mercilessly.

[8:9]  ² 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]  ³ tn Traditionally, “host.” The term refers to God’s heavenly angelic assembly, which he sometimes leads into battle as an army.

[8:10]  ⁴ 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).

[8:11]  ⁵ sn The prince of the army may refer to God (cf. “whose sanctuary” later in the verse) or to the angel Michael (cf. 12:1).

[8:11]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “and by him,” referring to Antiochus rather than to God.

[8:11]  ⁷ sn Here the sanctuary is a reference to the temple of God in Jerusalem.