Daniel 8

Third year of Belshazzar, two years after the previous dream.

2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal.

15 While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man.

16 And I heard a man's voice from the Ulai calling, "Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision."

17 As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. "Son of man," he said to me, "understand that the vision concerns the time of the end."

The end of Israel.

18 While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me and raised me to my feet.

19 He said: "I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end. (of Israel)

3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later.

20 The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia.

Persia was the newer kingdom, but became bigger than Media.

4 I watched the ram as he charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against him and none could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.

5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground.

21 The shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king.

Alexander the Great

6 He came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at him in great rage.

Darius III had defeated Alexander’s dad Phillip, who had died in battle with Persians. Alexander went after Persia partly in revenge.

7 I saw him attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering his two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against him; the goat knocked him to the ground and trampled on him, and none could rescue the ram from his power.

8 The goat became very great, but at the height of his power his large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.

22 The four horns that replaced the one that was broken off represent four kingdoms that will emerge from his nation but will not have the same power.

Alexander reached the Indus River in India. He wanted to go further, but his soldiers rebelled and threatened to leave him if he did. He returned to Babylonia where he died (poisoning or maybe malaria. We don’t know.) His four major Generals fought over the kingdom, killing his son, wives, mother and any other relatives they could find. After seven years of civil war, the kingdom was divided into four parts:

The four horns were:
• Antigonus won Greece (+Mediterranean to central Asia)
• Ptolemy Lagi won Egypt and southern Syria. Ptolomy gave Syria to his favorite general, Seleucus who captured Antigonus’ Asian territory.
• Cassander won Macedonia (northern modern Greece)
• Lysimachus won Thrace (by the Black sea)

9 Out of one of them (out of Egypt) came another horn (Seleucus), which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. (Israel)


10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them.

Antiochus IV of the Seleucus family. He killed many Israelites, especially the priests.

11 It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host; it took away the daily sacrifice from him, and the place of his sanctuary was brought low.

Antiochus IV, eleventh king in the Seleucian Dynasty, stopped the daily sacrifice for a time.

12 Because of rebellion, the host of the saints and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. (the horn) It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.

Because of the rebellion of the Jews, this was allowed.

23 "In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, will arise.

24 He (Antiochus IV) will destroy the mighty men and the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior.

25 When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed but not by human hands.

Antiochus III (of the Seleucid dynasty) was succeeded by his son Seleucus IV Philopator (187-175 BC). In order to collect taxes, Seleucus IV sent his tax collector to rob the Jerusalem temple. However, Heliodorus (the tax collecter) had Seleucus IV killed and assumed the throne.

Seleucus IV brother, Antiochus, had been captured by the Romans in a war with their father. Seleucus sent his son, Demetrius, to Rome as a hostage trade for his brother Antiochus IV just before his death.

Antiochus IV secretly negotiated with Rome for the Seleucid throne. Rome agreed to keep his nephew, Demetrius, as a hostage in exchange for extra taxes.

The king of Pergamus was given a portion of the kingdom of Antiochus III by the Romans for assisting them in the wars against the Seleucids. This king kicked Heliodorus (the tax collector) out and put Antiochus IV on the throne.

So, Antiochus IV Epiphanes took control of the kingdom of Syria and reigned from 175 BC to 164 BC. He stole from the treasury and Jewish temples, roamed around in Roman officer clothes, and drank and caroused with people of the lowest rank. He was way more wicked than previous rulers. He orchestrated the death of the former Jewish High-Priest and scores of priests and scribes (They refused to eat pork so he killed them) and sold the High-Priest position to the highest bidders. He thought he was a god. He took control of the Jerusalem temple, ended the daily sacrifices, sacrificed unclean animals on the temple altar and altars throughout Judea, performed or allowed acts of sexual perversion within the temple, placed an idol in the temple, collected the sacred Hebrew scrolls, threw them to the ground, and burned them in order to eliminate the Holy Laws from the land. He also plundered the temple treasury.
2 Maccabees 9 tells us that God struck Antiochus IV down with an incurable pain in his bowels. Antiochus IV was riding in a chariot when he fell out and his body was racked throughout. Living for a brief time, he became so infected that flesh fell off his bones and produced a horrid stench. He died without dignity- destroyed, but not by human hands.

13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, ‘How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?’

14 And he said unto me, ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’

Antiochus IV desecrated the Temple alter on Chislev 15, 168BC. The Jews celebrated its reconsecration on Chislev 25, 165BC, 1150 days or 2300 “daily” sacrifices later (one in the evening and one in the morning.) [As recorded in the books of the Maccabees]

26 "The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future."