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This and the following chapters are not writ in Chaldee, but in
Hebrew, for the benefit of the Jews.
Here is the vision of the ram, and the he - goat, and the little horn,
ver. 1 - 14.
The interpretation of it, ver. 15 - 27
1: After that - In the other vision he speaks o[ all the four
monarchies; here only of the three first; this vision being a
comment upon the first.
2: The river of Ulai - Which ran round the city.
3: Two horns - The kingdom of Media and Persia. And the
higher - The kingdom of Persia which rose last, in Cyrus, became
more eminent than that of the Medes.
4: West - ward - Toward Babylon, Syria, Cappadocia, Asia the less,
and Greece, all westward from Media and Persia.
North - ward - Against the Armenians, Iberians, Lydians, Colchi Caspians.
South - ward - Against Ethiopia, Arabia, Egypt.
5: An he - goat - The Grecian empire.
The whole earth - The whole Persian empire.
Touched not the ground - Went with incredible swiftness.
A horn - This was Alexander the great.
6: The ram - The king of Media and Persia.
8: Was broken - When Alexander was greatest, then was he broken,
and that to pieces, for he, his mother, son, brother, and all his
kindred were destroyed.
The four winds
- Antipater got Greece.
- Asia was possessed by Antigonus.
- Ptolemy got Egypt.
- Seleucus had Babylon and Syria.
All these were variously situated; to the east, Babylon and Syria;
to the south, Egypt; to the north, Asia the less; to the
west, Greece.
9: A little horn - This little horn was Antiochus Epiphanes.
The south - Egypt where he besieged and took many places.
The east - In Syria, Babylon, Armenia.
The pleasant land - Judea, so called because of the temple
and people of God in it, and the fruitfulness of it.
10: The host of heaven - The church of God militant, who worship the
God of heaven, who are citizens of heaven, whose names are written in
heaven; and among these the priests, and champions, who were as stars
shining above the rest; these he profaned and slew cruelly.
11: The prince - Not only against the high - priest, but against God
himself. Was cast down - He took away the use of the temple as to the
holy service and sacrifices.
12: By reason of transgression - Both the transgression of the
priests, and of the people.
13: One saint - That is, one holy angel. How long - How long shall
Antiochus continue his vexations against the people and prevent the
worship of God? This is, the treading down of the sanctuary, and the
host.
14: He - That angel. Then - Just so long it was, from the defection
of the people, procured by Menelaus, the high - priest, to the cleansing
of the sanctuary, and the re - establishment of religion among them.
15: The meaning - A more clear discovery of those things.
The appearance of a man - Probably Gabriel.
16: A man's voice - Of him before mentioned, namely, Christ.
17: He came near - That he might speak more familiarly to him, yet
Daniel could not bear the glory of it. How much less can we bear the
glory of God, and how graciously hath the Lord dealt with us, to teach
us by men, and not by angels? O son of man - He calls him son of man,
to make him mind his frailty, and not to be lifted up with this great
condescension of heaven. At the time - In God's appointed time, in the
latter day, but not now in thy life - time.
18: Toward the ground - Being terrified with the splendor and grandeur
both of the messenger and message. Set me upright - By one touch only.
The power of spirits is incomparably greater than that of the strongest
of men.
19: The indignation - God will raise up Antiochus to execute his
wrath against the Jews for their sins, yet there shall be an end of
that indignation.
23: In the latter time - When they were come to the height, and
beginning to decline. When the transgressors - When the Jews were
grown to an excess of wickedness, then God suffered Antiochus to
persecute them. Dark sentences - Full of subtilty: such all histories
declare Antiochus to be.
24: Not by his own power - Not by any heroick deeds, but by making
use of the Jewish factions, through the divine commission to punish a
backsliding nation; and by means of Eumenes and Attalus, by whose
help he got up to this height. Shall destroy - He shall by force, craft,
and cruelty, destroy many of God's people.
25: By peace - Under colour of kindness. Against the prince of
princes - He fought against God, affronting God's laws, profaning
God's worship, and temple, and setting up the image and worship
of Jupiter there. Without hand - By a disease whereof he died,(1Macc 6:8).
26: Shut thou up - Lay it up in thy heart. For many days - Three
hundred years after this; long after Daniel's days.
27: Was sick - Being overwhelmed by a sense of the calamity that
should befall the people of God. Did the king's business - Having
recovered strength, he minded his place, duty and trust, and
concealed the whole, that they might not see it by his countenance.
