Daniel's Vision of the Ram and the Goat
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The Setting of the Vision
The Setting of the Vision
In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal.
It takes place in the 3rd year of Belshazzar, King of Babylon. He became coregent with his father in 553 BC, so this was about 550 BC This is just the time when Cyrus began his push that resulted in the defeat of Babylon about a dozen years later. The whole world was starting to wonder what would become of the Persian Empire.
It takes place in the 3rd year of Belshazzar, King of Babylon. He became coregent with his father in 553 BC, so this was about 550 BC This is just the time when Cyrus began his push that resulted in the defeat of Babylon about a dozen years later. The whole world was starting to wonder what would become of the Persian Empire.
It takes place in Susa the Citadel. Daniel was most likely still in Babylon at the time, since he was able to resume the King’s Business after a few days of illness. Further, Daniel was getting old by this point, being approximately 70 years old. Daniel was transported to Susa by vision, in the same way that Ezekiel was transported in a vision to Jerusalem even though he was still in Babylon by the Chebar Canal (; ). Susa is about 220 miles east of Babylon.
Susa is called “The Citadel” in Scripture 12 times, elsewhere only in Nehemiah and Esther (; ; etc.). The word means “fortress,” “Castle,” or “Palace.” The word is used for the temple complex (), for a fortified military structure (; ). It was a very large city by ancient standards, covering some 600 acres, yet archaeological evidence shows it was not heavily populated. It was primarily a royal residence, a government centre used as a showpiece of Persian wealth and power. Yet at the time of the vision the Elamites, not the Persians controlled the city. It wasn’t taken by the Persians until after they conquered Babylon and didn’t become the capital until 521 BC [well after Daniel’s death], so Daniel’s choice of this city as the Persian capital is itself prophetic. The Ulai Canal runs near the city and is some 900 feet wide. Today it is dry.
The Record of the Vision
The Record of the Vision
1. Comparison with the other visions in Daniel.
A. The Ram
A. The Ram
I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.
As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia.
2. The two horns of the ram stand for the two nations of Media and Persia. Media was the first, already being a major power, but Persia was a small nation with less than 50k square miles of territory. But when Cyrus united Media and Persia he made Persia a dominant force, that became so great that the empire is often just known as the Persian empire. The Persian empire did indeed become great - at its largest extent it was the largest empire in the world at the time.
B. The Goat
B. The Goat
Daniel 8:5-
As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath.
2. The two horns of the ram stand for the two nations of Media and Persia. Media was the first, already being a major power, but Persia was a small nation with less than 50k square miles of territory. But when Cyrus united Media and Persia he made Persia a dominant force, that became so great that the empire is often just known as the Persian empire.
Daniel 8:7
I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.
And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king.
3. The goat stands for the nation of Greece. We have moved ahead in history 200 years to 336 BC. The great horn is Alexander the Great. The great rage in his vision stands for both Alexander’s anger at his father’s defeat by the Persians, and his own enormous ambitions for world domination. The Goat does not touch the ground signifying the astonishing speed that Alexander conquered the middle East. In just 11 years between 334 and 323 BC he conquered all the way from Greece to India to Egypt. His empire covered 1.5 million square miles.
Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power.
Daniel 8:22
But Alexander never made it home. He drank himself to death and died at just 33 years of age. His four generals divided his empire between them, and they became four separate empires.
C. the Little Horn
C. the Little Horn
Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them.
This little horn was the eighth king of the Seleucid empire - one of the four empires that came out of Alexander’s conquest. His name was Antiochus Epiphanes IV and he ruled from 175-164 BC. He is different from the little horn in . In , the horn arises from the fourth empire, Rome. In , the little horn arises from the Grecian empire. In Chapter 7, the little horn refers to the AntiChrist, the coming ruler that will oppose God in the tribulation. In chapter 8, the little horn is a figure now part of history. But because the two rulers are so similar, much of the characteristics of Antiochus Epiphanes will also be true of the AntiChrist. Antiochus began an expansionistic campaign that included the “glorious land” that is, Israel.
Again we get some more details from the Angel’s interpretation.
The mention of the host and stars might make you think of angels, since other places the angels are called a host (1 kgs 22:19) and stars (). However, the angel interprets the stars to mean the saints, that is, those who truly follow God
His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints.
Daniel 8:
Indeed for the short time he ruled it was very difficult for Jews who truly followed God. We get much of our historical information from the apocryphal books of First and Second Maccabees. These books are not part of Scripture, but they are generally accepted to be fairly reliable history. His goal was to unify his empire by making everyone Greek - which included worshipping the Greek Gods. He made Judaism illegal, and murdered more than 80,000 Jews to enforce his decree. The persecution began with the murder of the high priest, the godly Onias III in 170 BC. But his attempt to obliterate Jewish culture did not just extend to murdering faithful Jews. He caused the sacrifices of the temple to cease - he set up an altar to the pagan god Zeus in the Temple, and offered a pig on the Bronze Altar. Pigs are, of course, unclean to the Jews. So by offering a pig on the altar he made the Jewish altar unfit for use in worship. And by setting up an altar to Zeus he intentionally polluted the temple by putting up a rival god in its precincts. Judas Maccabaeus, which is where the name Maccabees comes from, drove out the Greeks, threw out the pagan altar and purified and rededicated the Temple on December 14, 164BC. The Jews still celebrate this rededication in the festival of Hanukkah, which means dedication.
Any Jew who wanted to be faithful to God during this time, had to resist Antiochus’ attempt to make them Greeks. Although for many Jews it was a matter of cultural identity, it was much more than this. Because their culture included the worship of the one true God, being Jewish also meant worshiping God. Choosing to worship God was extremely dangerous, so many faithful Old Testament saints payed for their piety with their lives.
We also get a clue about the time Antiochus will arrive.
And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise.
Antiochus came at the end of Grecian world domination. His power began to be curtailed in 168 BC, even before the end of his rule. The Roman General Populius cornered him in Egypt, and drew a circle around him and dared him to go outside the circle. The military power of the Romans scared him so much he capitulated to Roman demands.
But before he did that, for a brief time he did whatever he wanted (v.12 can be understood as “will act as he pleases and prosper.”)
It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper.
Daniel 8:9-
Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”
Daniel 8:11-
There are two views of the timing of this passage. One takes the 2,300 evenings and mornings as individual sacrifices, so with two daily sacrifices it refers to half the number of days - 1150. If so then we can use the information in 1 Maccabees to get a time. Antiochus sacrificed the pig in December, 167BC, and the temple was rededicated in December 164 BC. But this is about 45 days too short. It is possible that the sacrifices ceased before the pig was sacrifices.
The other view pays careful attention to the language - when the Scripture talks about evening and morning, it often means one day (). If so then the 2,300 means 2,300 days. And v.13 doesn’t just talk about the sacrifice, but also the sanctuary and the host [saints] being trampled. So the 2,300 days aren’t just about the temple, but about the persecution of the Jewish People. The murder of the high priest in 170BC is at the right time, and just about 2,300 days later the temple was rededicated. Either way, prophecy is right.
It is important to interpret prophecy correctly. In 1844 William Miller ,the founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, used this verse to try to predict the coming of Jesus Christ. He predicted that Jesus would come in 1844. He and his followers sold everything they had, dressed in white robes, and waiting on top of a mountain for Jesus to come. When this didn’t happen, some became so disillusioned they abandoned their faith. Those who didn’t do that took a huge and totally unnecessary financial hit. And Miller’s false prediction of the coming of Christ made the second coming look ridiculous to the world. The cost of this misinterpretation of Scripture was immense. He took the passage completely out of context, and thought that the days were years to arrive at his conclusion. If he had only been careful with Scripture, he would have avoided this costly mistake.
The end of the Angel’s interpretation might make you think of the end times.
By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.”
More than that, in v. 17 we are told that “the vision is for the time of the end.” and in v. 19 it will be “at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end.” “the time of the end” is a phrase that is indeed sometimes used to refer to that special time when God will judge the earth at the end of the history of human rule. It is just for this reason that some good interpreters believe that these verses are describing the antiChrist. After all, the character of Antiochus was very much like how the antichrist is described. But all of the events of this chapter seem to be fulfilled by the end of the second century BC. How can this be? Perhaps the “time of the end” doesn’t mean the end of history, but the end of a particular season of God’s wrath on Israel. The “indignation” is not the Great Tribulation at the end of history, but a lesser tribulation. It helps us understand a bit about what the Great Tribulation will be like, especially for us because Daniel’s prophecy has now taken place, so we have the advantage of history to help us understand. After the rededication of the temple in 164 BC, things really did start getting better for Israel. Judas Maccabaeus set up an independent kingdom of Judea run by King-priests, and it lasted for 100 years until the Romans took over. God’s season of wrath was over for now, not because Israel repented but because God is a God of mercy. But what does it mean that Antiochus was broken without human hands? How does that fit into the second century?
Antiochus was indeed broken without human hands. He did not die in battle, nor was he assassinated. He died of an illness. The “Prince of Princes” is an evident title for God. The Hebrew word is שַׂר which has a wider range of meaning than our English word “prince.” in English, a “prince” is a male member of the royal family who isn’t the King. But the Hebrew word is used for many different kinds of rulers, officials, or chieftains. The “Prince of Princes” is a Hebrew way of expressing the highest or greatest. For example, in , Jesus is called the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” That is, he is the highest King, the highest Lord. Jesus is King and Lord because he is God. Antiochus did indeed rise up against God. He deliberately attached the worship of the God of Israel and tried to stamp it out.
Daniel is told that the vision is true but refers to very distant events. His prophecy was not fulfilled until almost 400 years after he gave it, and that is pretty far off. Only God can predict the future centuries in advance.
The Effect of the Vision
The Effect of the Vision
The vision had a dramatic effect on Daniel. He was so terrified by the appearance of a man-like figure in v.15, that he fainted dead away. His terror was so great that Gabriel had to revive him so Gabriel could complete his mission, and Daniel was so emotionally drained that he was ill for a few days as a result. This is despite the fact that Daniel doesn’t seem to have been frightened by angels as much as most people are. In , he goes up to an angel and asks him a question. In the following chapter, Daniel gets another visit from Gabriel and does not seem to be quite as frightened. But perhaps the first man in v.15 is not Gabriel. Daniel sees this man before him, yet in v.17 Gabriel has to go to Daniel before he can tell him anything. Furthermore, there was a voice that appeared between the banks of the river Ulai - that is in the middle of the air over a canal 900 feet wide. this voice commands Gabriel to do something, showing that he is in command of the angel. Thus the voice, and perhaps the man, is God himself. That explains Daniel’s unusual terror.
Daniel doesn’t understand the vision - not that he understood nothing at all. It’s pretty clear that the ram is Persia and the goat is Greece. But without the advantage of history to help him understand specific dates and times, the vision would have been very confusing. He didn’t understand when it would take place, or over how long a time. As Peter said later
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,
Daniel is appalled by the vision - it predicts a lot of suffering for the Jewish people. So why reveal it. What is the purpose of putting Daniel through all this suffering?
Daniel is appalled by the vision