Dan 8:2 | KingComments | STEP | From Daniel 8 until the end of the book, the description of the events is again in Hebrew. The part from Daniel 2:4 up to and including Daniel 7 is written in Aramaic, the language of the first great empire. This change will have to do with the content of the following chapters. In the description of these events it is mainly about the consequences these events have for Israel, that is called “the Beautiful [Land]” ( ). They also concern God and “the place of His sanctuary”, which is the temple ( ). Israel is the land on which God’s eyes are day and night ( ; ). Daniel 8 is about the second and third empire, that is to say the world empire of the Medes and Persians and the Greek world empire. In Daniel 7 these empires are presented as a bear and a leopard. Here they are presented as a ram and a goat. The bear and leopard are predators, they devour, they are impure beasts. Rams and goats are pure animals. They could be eaten in Israel and were also used for the sacrificial service. The world empires are unclean powers that devour horribly. Yet there is also an aspect in those world empires that makes it possible to compare them to a ram and a goat, which indicates that they are a pleasure to God. For they accomplish the pleasure of God by doing His work. That work consists of executing His judgment, first and foremost on His people, but then also on the people who executed His judgment, because this people went beyond God’s will. Cyrus, the head of the Medo-Persian empire, is called the “anointed” of God ( ). He is the executer of God’s discipline, and he also cares for His people. We also find this in the book of Zechariah where the black horses that go north make the Spirit of God rest, that is, they do His pleasure ( ). So in this chapter the goat is a pleasure to God if he destroys the ram. But he loses this pleasure when he exalts himself. When Daniel gets the vision, he is still under the reign of the ruler of Babylon, while the vision is about the judgment of the Medes and Persians through the Greeks. So he sees in advance that the second empire is conquered by the third empire. The vision he gets is in line with the previous one, that of the four world empires in the previous chapter. That was two years ago ( ), but he still remembers it well. Of those four empires, the second and the third empire, that are the empires of the Medes and Persians and of Greece, are now highlighted ( ). When Daniel sees the vision, he is not in Babylon, but in the citadel of Susa, in the province of Elam. Susa is the capital of the province of Elam, which must have been located west of Persia, east of Babylon and south of the Medes. In the vision Daniel is beside the Ulai Canal. Other visions are also connected to a river ( ; ; ). Here the Ulai Canal is the place where Daniel sees the ram.

‏ Daniel 8:2

Introduction

From Daniel 8 until the end of the book, the description of the events is again in Hebrew. The part from Daniel 2:4 up to and including Daniel 7 is written in Aramaic, the language of the first great empire. This change will have to do with the content of the following chapters. In the description of these events it is mainly about the consequences these events have for Israel, that is called “the Beautiful [Land]” (Dan 8:9). They also concern God and “the place of His sanctuary”, which is the temple (Dan 8:11). Israel is the land on which God’s eyes are day and night (Deu 11:12; 1Kgs 9:3).

Daniel 8 is about the second and third empire, that is to say the world empire of the Medes and Persians and the Greek world empire. In Daniel 7 these empires are presented as a bear and a leopard. Here they are presented as a ram and a goat. The bear and leopard are predators, they devour, they are impure beasts. Rams and goats are pure animals. They could be eaten in Israel and were also used for the sacrificial service.

The world empires are unclean powers that devour horribly. Yet there is also an aspect in those world empires that makes it possible to compare them to a ram and a goat, which indicates that they are a pleasure to God. For they accomplish the pleasure of God by doing His work. That work consists of executing His judgment, first and foremost on His people, but then also on the people who executed His judgment, because this people went beyond God’s will.

Cyrus, the head of the Medo-Persian empire, is called the “anointed” of God (Isa 45:1a). He is the executer of God’s discipline, and he also cares for His people. We also find this in the book of Zechariah where the black horses that go north make the Spirit of God rest, that is, they do His pleasure (Zec 6:6-8). So in this chapter the goat is a pleasure to God if he destroys the ram. But he loses this pleasure when he exalts himself.

Time and Place of the Vision

When Daniel gets the vision, he is still under the reign of the ruler of Babylon, while the vision is about the judgment of the Medes and Persians through the Greeks. So he sees in advance that the second empire is conquered by the third empire. The vision he gets is in line with the previous one, that of the four world empires in the previous chapter. That was two years ago (Dan 7:1), but he still remembers it well. Of those four empires, the second and the third empire, that are the empires of the Medes and Persians and of Greece, are now highlighted (Dan 8:20-21).

When Daniel sees the vision, he is not in Babylon, but in the citadel of Susa, in the province of Elam. Susa is the capital of the province of Elam, which must have been located west of Persia, east of Babylon and south of the Medes. In the vision Daniel is beside the Ulai Canal. Other visions are also connected to a river (Dan 10:4; Eze 1:1; Psa 137:1). Here the Ulai Canal is the place where Daniel sees the ram.