1 2 CHAPTER VIII. In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a Vision appeared unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me in the beginning. And I saw in a THIS Chapter contains the Vision of the Ram and the He-goat; or an account of the Persian and Grecian monarchies; the explanation of the Vision by the Angel Gabriel; the Persecutions of the Jews in the Profanation of their Temple and removal of the daily Sacrifice, and the continuance of the troubles for 2300 days, till the Sanctuary should be cleansed. It is thought also to have a farther reference to the persecutions and profanations of Antichrist. The Chaldee language is continued no farther, but the Hebrew is resumed, and used to the end of the book. 1. —in the beginning.-The Prophet here alludes to the vision in the former chapter, which happened in the first year of Belshazzar's reign, as this did in the third. Mr. Lowth thinks this word may be rendered, "before,” and refers to Chap. ix. 21 for the like usage. 2. And I saw in a Vision.-The four first words of this verse are omitted by Th. but Theodoret has them, and MS. Pachom. Th. likewise omits the words και ειδον εν οραματι after Αιλαμ, which are found in that MS. In this same MS, also are several letters erased after the word Oubal, perhaps ovλa, corresponding with the Heb. ; and the like erasements appear after ovßaλ in the next verse, and at ver. 6 and 16. Syr. reads Abul-Oulai, the gate Ulai of the city. Aq. has Ubal-Ulai, and Sym. paludem Ulai. According to the Greek of Th. it is directly asserted that the Prophet was at Susa and upon the Oubal; or, upon the gate of that city. But perhaps the greatest difficulty is to shew how he came there. Some suspect he was sent on an embassy, or engaged in some occasional office or employment, being still in the service of the king of Babylon, as appears from ver. 27. Dr. Blayney thinks Elam was a Vision (and it happened that in my seeing I was in 3 Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold separate province from Persia, and a part of the Babylonish empire; and that Daniel presided over it, and had Shushan for the seat of his government. See on Jer. xlix. 34. But in the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela Susiana is reckoned the same province with Elam: And it seems very probable that Elam in its larger sense comprehended the whole country on either side the Eulæus, the one part of which was called Elymais, the other Susiana. Shushan, the metropolis, according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. vi. was placed on this river, or rather surrounded by it, and seems to have been the capital of both parts; and though it might have been subject to Babylon when Daniel saw this vision, having been subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, might afterwards have revolted from it, and joined with the Medes and Persians in the siege of that city. Thus however we may account for Daniel's actual presence at Shushan, by supposing it a Babylonian province, if the Greek Interpreter be right in placing him really there in this third year of Belshazzar. But the language of the original, and also of the Greek copies above mentioned as agreeing therewith, seems rather to intimate that he was there only in a vision, and the repetition of the terms vision and seeing tends to confirm this opinion. In this one verse we read, that "the Prophet saw in a vision, and in his seeing," or in his visionary idea, "he was at Shushan;” and again, “when he saw in the vision” he was on the Ulai. Cappellus thus translates, "Quum igitur contemplarer hanc visionem, accidit, ut viderer mihi esse Susis urbe regia, quæ est in Elymaide provincia, videbam igitur in illa visione, perinde ac si essem juxta fluvium Eulæum." Also two MSS. omit the word “and it happened; and the reason why Shushan might be so full in his thoughts was, that the deliverance of his captive brethren was expected from the Persian monarch. Yet Theodoret suggests, as Secker observes, that Daniel must be avaykais, at the metropolis of Persia, in a vision which foretels the destruction of Persia. If his actual presence in Persia be still contended for, then the opinion of Houbigant will appear to me most just, that the Prophet was in Shushan, but in his visionary idea was near the river, so that he there stood before the river a single ram, which had horns, and the horns were lofty, but one was loftier meant to distinguish between his real and imaginary situation in the verse before us. The Author of the Revelation of St. John Considered, p. 376, supposes Daniel to be speaking of Shushan, the capital at the time he compiled his visions, after the third year of Cyrus, when the Persian dominion was established over Asia: But there is no necessity to have recourse to this supposition; as whatever may be the exact meaning of the word 727, Gr. τη ßupei. Vulg. castro. Syr. and Ar. "the palace;" it is evident that Shushan was sufficiently distinguished in the third of Belshazzar, to be intitled to either of these appellations. That the river Ulai or Eulæus is here meant, or that the word preceding it is to be considered as an appellative, denoting a river rather than a gate, is very probable, not only from the situation of Shushan above described, but also from this circumstance, that it was customary for the prophets to see visions, or receive communications from heaven, near the sides, or on the banks of rivers; thus Ezekiel was favoured by the river Chebar, Daniel at Chap. x. near the Hid. dekel or Tigris, and John Baptist at Jordan. Pliny in his Nat. Hist. p. 622, mentions (probably from Herodotus) a remarkable circumstance of the waters of the Ulai and Choaspes, which by some are thought to be the same river, that they were so very wholesome, as to induce the Parthian kings constantly to drink of them, and to carry them with them for this purpose on distant expeditions. 3. there stood before the river.-Many MSS. read the noun 18 with 1, as at the former verse, and so at ver. 6. It is doubtless the same word that is meant in both places, and the prefix 7 seems here to indicate it to be an appellative. Standing before the river is probably an allusion to the ordinary residence of the kings of Persia at Shushan on the Ulai. -a single ram, which had horns.—Heb. “ one ram ;" and the Versions rightly retain the word 78, as it denotes the unity of the empire. The word 'p horns, the Masoretes have pointed as in the dual number; but the limitation is unnecessary, as the plural can here mean no more than two, and the word '♫w is not expressed, as at ver. 7. See ver. 20, and the story of Cipus in Ovid's Metam. lib. xv. 565, &c. -one was loftier than the other.-The first or foremost horn was the kingdom of the Medes, the latter that of the Persians, which K 4 than the other, and the loftiest grew up last. I saw the ram butting westward, and northward, and southward; neither could any beasts stand before him, nor could any one deliver from his power; but he did what 5 he liked, and became great. And whilst I was contem plating, behold a he-goat came from the west over the was by far the most illustrious, or higher than the other, insomuch that the kingdom of the Medes was as it were sunk into that of the Persians: and the kings of the Persian empire were possessed of immense riches; so that Curtius relates of Codomannus, that he had 120,000 talents in Persepolis, and 6000 at Pasargada, besides what he possessed in other cities. Curt. lib. v. c. 6. It has been often remarked from Amm. Marcellinus, lib. xix. that a ram was the royal ensign of the Persians; and that rams' heads with horns, one higher, the other lower, are still to be seen on the pillars of Persepolis; and a horn has been frequently noted to be an ensign of royalty, especially among the Phoenicians. 4. -butting westward, and northward, and southward.-Westward, i. e. subduing Babylonia, Syria, and Asia minor, under the reign of Cyrus, and extending to part of Greece under that of his successors, Darius the son of Hystaspes, and Xerxes. Northward; the same Darius, according to Herodotus and Justin, carried his arms into the territories of the Scythians, beyond the Caspian sea; and the Lydians, Armenians, Cappadocians, Iberians, &c. were subject to Persia. Southward; the Persians extended their conquests over Arabia, India, Egypt, and Ethiopia, which last was entered by Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus; and the Persian empire was very much enlarged and extended under the victorious arms of its first monarchs. 5.- ——————a he-goat came from the west.—Hircus caprarum. Vir gregis. But two MSS. have not the word ', 66 caprarum ;” At ver. 21, it is "the goat, the shaggy one," or the chief goat. Cappellus thinks the expression in this place alludes to the youth or tender years of Alexander; and, as there seems no occasion for such allusion at ver. 21, this may account for the change. The Macedonians are called Egeades from Ayos; see Just. 1. vii. and from the same author we learn, that the goat since their king Caranus was the arms of Macedon. Bp. Chandler, in his Vindication, p. 154, observes, that princes and nations, being of old painted by their symbols, which Procopius calls surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground, and the goat had a conspicuous horn between yoopioμara, they came afterwards to be distinguished by writers with the names of their symbols, as by their proper appellations. "Yet Alexander derived himself from Jupiter Ammon, and "he and his successors had two rams' horns on their coins, the very description of the former beast." But this happened not till after he had subdued Egypt; when, being lord of Persia, he might adopt her arms or ensigns for his own. In respect of Persia, Macedon or Greece is to the west; but the Greek Interpreter reads arо Aßos, from the south-west, or Libya; I suppose alluding to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, which was in those parts, and which Alexander visited, in order to claim his descent from thence. Dr. Newton observes, that Alexander's son by Roxana was named Ægus, or the son of the goat, and that some of his successors are represented in their coins with goats' horns. Vol. ii. p. 28. -without touching the ground." Theodoret saith, only some copies have this clause; he saith also, that a like clause was found in the fourth verse. Some understand it of Alexander's swiftness, for which he hath wings ascribed to him in Chap. vii. Compare Camilla in Virgil. Syr, translates 1, 'hurt not,' and so the word is used Ps. cv. 15, with the same preposition after it as here. And Alexander was a mild conqueror." Secker. As the former expression, "over the face of the whole earth," intimates the great extent of his conquests, so this denotes the rapidity of them, or the short space of time in which the whole were effected. But it should be observed that the words may be rendered more agreeably to the Syriac, "and no one, or nothing, touched, or hindered him in the earth;" i. e. he met with no impediment or material molestation. .קרן חזות בין *-.a conspicuous horn θεωρητον αναμεσον. Cod. Alex. Ald. Theodor. eσnμov avaμeσov. Compl. μeσov. Ed. Rom. Th. insigne inter. Vulg. sunn Syr." Tpayw ekeivw kepas ev Dewρntov avaμeσov Twv-MS. Pachom. Cappellus would give to the word the signification of winding, sinuosus, or perplexus; but Michaelis derives it from the root, or the Arab. transfixit, and would here, and at ver. 8, give it the sense of acutus, or a penetrating horn, piercing through all things. I have followed the more usual sense. This conspicuous or piercing horn, we read at ver. 21, |