And as I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west over the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.
As Daniel watches the two-horned ram trample everything in its path, a second creature rushes in from the west, moving so fast it never touches the ground. The chapter names both animals later, so the real questions are who this single horn is, why Greece appears as a goat, and where the vision finally leads.
The goat is not left to guesswork. One writer explains why the animal stands for a kingdom, and its single horn for one man:
The goat sets forth "the king of Greece," the king here standing, as often, for the sovereignty or kingdom itself. So the "notable horn" stands for Alexander. History has long celebrated his military genius, courage and victories. Speed marked his campaigns, and the vision describes it in a striking way. In about ten years he conquered almost all the kingdoms of the then known world.
The goat never touching the ground is not decoration. One writer links it to another picture of the same empire — a leopard with wings:
A leopard pictures how fast it conquered, since the leopard is one of the swiftest beasts after its prey. The picture adds four bird's wings to speed up its movements. Its progress was so rapid that when it appears as a goat in chapter 8:5, it is said it "touched not the ground." In this way the Spirit of God takes notice of the campaigns and victories of Alexander the Great.
The direction matters too. The goat comes from the west. This "describes the first contest of Europe with Asia for world power," writes A. J. Pollock.
The earlier vision showed these empires as beasts. Here the symbols change, and one writer reads that change as God's own accounting:
Before God the Medo-Persian and the Macedonian were only "beasts." They were no better than the Babylonian before them or the Roman after. Yet God still valued the kindness shown to His chastened people. So the symbols change in Daniel 8 compared with Daniel 7. In this special aspect they are presented as clean animals... Whatever regard they had for the afflicted Jew, toward one another they showed no mercy and no lack of ambition.
The chapter also marks a turn. Even the language of the original text changes here, and the subject narrows:
We now leave the portion of the prophecy that deals specially with the Gentile powers. As chapter 8 begins, the original language goes back to Hebrew from the language of Babylon. Gentile powers are still in view, but the main point seems to be what they do to Jerusalem, with its sanctuary and sacrifices. The vision came to Daniel in Shushan, not in Babylon. Shushan was a palace of the Medo-Persian empire, the empire that overthrew Babylon. And it must have come just before that overthrow happened.
The vision does not stop with Alexander. His speed and success are only the opening act:
No one denies how good these symbols are. They picture the slower, heavier aggression of the Medo-Persian, and the amazing speed and force of the spirited Greek. They also show the later division of the Syrian-Greek kingdom of the north. But all this, however interesting, only prepares the way for the main design in the last days. Then a mysterious king will meddle with the Jews. He will hurt many of them, but it will end in his own destruction.
Daniel saw this while Babylon still stood and Persia had not yet taken over. History then matched the picture:
No other horn comes up to dispute with that conspicuous horn. Yet it was broken, as Nebuchadnezzar never was, nor Cyrus. Alexander did come from the west as one who never touched the ground. In the fury of his power he ran at the mighty Persian power, which had pushed west, north and south. Yet in the strangest and saddest way his course was cut short. He was a young man of thirty-two, in the middle of plans that reached further than any ruler before him. Give, if you can, out of any history, anything that so clearly answers to the vision.
- Named — The goat is the kingdom of Greece, and its one great horn between the eyes is Alexander.
- Swift — The goat crosses the earth "without touching the ground." Alexander took almost the whole known world in about ten years.
- Weighed — Greece and Persia appear as clean animals, not beasts of prey. God values even kindness shown to His chastened people.
- Narrowed — The language of the original returns to Hebrew. The focus tightens onto Jerusalem, its sanctuary and its sacrifices.
- Preparatory — The whole brilliant career is only a runway. It sets the stage for a later king who will meddle with the Jews and be destroyed himself.
And he came to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran upon him in the fury of his power.
In Daniel 8:6 the vision turns violent. The goat from the west reaches the two-horned ram by the canal and charges him in a rage. The picture raises two questions — who are these animals, and why does the goat attack with such fury?
The chapter itself names both animals. One writer sets out the history behind the charge:
This land of Elam, or Persia, was the body of the second beast. The bear of chapter 7 is now the ram. "The ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia" (v. 20). These two kingdoms were united into one... The he-goat of verse 5, who attacks the ram, is the empire of the Greeks, which began under Alexander. This "notable horn," having united the Greeks, led them into Asia against the empire of the Persians. In three years he overthrew it. It crumbled into nothing before his energy, and this won him, among men, the name of Great.
Persia was at its peak when the goat ran at him. The attack came from the west, a part of the world that had never struck the east before.
This was the first attack the west had ever made on the eastern world. Nothing seemed more unlikely, because the east was the cradle of the human race. Yet here this striking prophetic picture shows the Persian kingdom still without a rival. It was not in decline. It was at the very height of its power. Then, from quite another quarter, comes a power shown in the vision as a he-goat — an enemy from the west. And this power advances with the greatest possible speed. As it says here, he "did not touch the ground."
The verse does not just say the goat attacked. It says he ran at the ram in rage. The wording points to a real hatred between the two nations.
Verses 6 and 7 describe the attack of Alexander upon Persia in figures. Yet though the language is symbolic, no description of his conquest could be more accurate. The goat "came to the ram with the two horns … and he ran at him in his powerful wrath."... The very words used express a special hostility in the one attacking Persia. And that is just what was there. Greece had never forgotten the invasion of their country by the Persian armies, and they burned to take revenge on their enemy.
Behind the rage of a conqueror stood a limit God had already set.
In fact the Persian empire had, by God's appointment, reached the end of its time. The kingdom He had chosen to follow it was now to take the supremacy. The battles of Issus and Arbela are among the decisive battles of the world. They were decisive because God was using Alexander "the Great" to carry out His purposes for the government of the earth.
Two empires that filled the history books get only a few lines here. That tells us where God's attention rests.
The Spirit always looks forward to the close. He may bring in things that will happen in a fairly short time. But His main attention rests on the end of this age, not on the events that surround the powers of the world. God has a people that His heart is set upon... Persia may have looked mighty, and Greece too. Their disputes may fill up the history of the world. But God thinks little of them. He disposes of the records of centuries in a few words.
Even critics have long noticed how exact the description is. Kelly points to the sceptical historian Gibbon. Gibbon admitted that "the rapid conquest of Persia by Alexander, his untimely death without posterity, the division of his monarchy into four kingdoms" and more "are described with as much clearness as in the histories of Justin and Diodorus." He then concluded that Daniel "is too exact for a prophet" (William Kelly).
- Charge — named. The ram is Media and Persia; the goat is Greece, its great horn Alexander, who overthrew Persia in three years.
- Charge — unexpected. The blow fell on Persia at its height, from the west, which had never struck the east before.
- Charge — angry. The rage in the verse is real. Greece had never forgotten Persia's invasion of their land.
- Charge — permitted. God had set the end of Persia's time. Alexander's victories carried out His purposes for the government of the earth.
- Charge — brief. God spends a few words on centuries of empire, because His attention rests on His people and on the end of the age.
And I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged with him, and smote the ram, and broke his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him; and he cast him down to the ground, and trampled upon him; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.
This vision shows Daniel two empires that have not yet risen. They are locked in a fight to the death. The ram is shattered, thrown down and trampled, with no one to rescue it. Commentators ask what the picture meant in history, and why God showed it at all.
One writer sums up the collision:
The he-goat came close to the ram, broke his two horns, cast him to the ground, and stamped on him. In other words, Greece, led by Alexander the Great, smashed the world-empire of the Medes and Persians.
An earlier vision in Daniel had pictured these same powers as wild beasts. Here the symbols change to clean animals. One writer ties the change to how the two empires treated God's scattered people:
In God's sight the Medo-Persian and the Macedonian empires were only "beasts," no better than the Babylonian before them or the Roman after them. Yet God still valued kindness shown to His chastened people. So the symbols change in Daniel 8 compared with Daniel 7. In this one respect they appear as clean animals... Whatever regard they had for the afflicted Jew, toward each other they showed no mercy and no lack of ambition... The symbol had to show a power made of two parts: the ram had two horns, both high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.
The verse reports more than a defeat. It reports a temper. The wording points to a settled hatred with a history behind it:
The very words used express a particularly hostile feeling on the part of Persia's attacker. This was indeed the case. Greece had never forgotten the invasion of their country by the Persian hordes, and they burned to take revenge on their enemy.
(Older translations say "moved with choler." The ESV says "enraged against him.")
The attack left the ram no defence:
The he-goat attacks the ram with such overwhelming force that the ram had no power to withstand the assault. The ram was cast down, ruthlessly crushed, with none to deliver. The picture vividly sets out the speed and ferocity of Alexander's conquests. They crushed the Persian Empire and ended it as a world power, and the Greek Empire took its place.
One writer traces the timing of this collapse to God Himself:
In fact the duration of the Persian empire had, by God's appointment, reached its end, and the kingdom He had chosen to follow it was now to take the supremacy... God was using Alexander "the Great" to accomplish His purposes for the government of the earth.
One writer names the battles and the king who fell:
He fought the great battles of the Granicus, Issus and Arbela, and stamped the power of Persia and its king, Darius Codomannus, to the ground. He rapidly conquered Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Tyre, Gaza, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia... And so he trampled on the ram after having broken its horns.
Another writer turns the match into a challenge:
Alexander did come from the west as one who did not touch the ground. In the fury of his power he ran at the Persian empire, mighty until then, which had pushed west, north and south... Produce, if you can, out of any history, anything that so clearly answers to the vision. The facts are well known and correspond exactly with the prophecy.
God covers two of the greatest empires of the ancient world in a handful of clauses. That brevity tells us where His interest lies:
Persia looked mighty, and so did Greece. Their conflicts filled up the history of the world. Yet God thinks little of them. He disposes of the records of centuries in a few words. The point God hurries on to might have seemed small in the eyes of the world. But it is bound up with the interests of His king and His people, so He moves on to the great events connected with them in the last days.
- Rage — the language marks more than war; it marks a grudge. Greece had not forgotten Persia's invasion and attacked "in the fury of his power."
- Rescue — no one could deliver the ram. Persia's time had run out by God's appointment, and God was using Alexander to carry out His purposes for the government of the earth.
- Ruin — broken horns and a trampled body. Persia ended as a world power, and Greece took its place.
- Record — commentators point to Alexander and the fall of Persia as the exact answer to the picture. They challenge anyone to find a closer match in history.
- Reason — God compresses centuries into a sentence because His eye is on His king and His people. He sums up empires in a line and presses on with His purpose.
And the he-goat became exceeding great; but when he was become strong, the great horn was broken; and in its stead came up four notable ones toward the four winds of the heavens.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.