Daniel 8:1

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar,.... Which some say (t) was the last year of his reign; but, according to Ptolemy's canon, he reigned seventeen years; and so says Josephus (u);

In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

DANIEL CHAPTER 8 Daniel’ s vision of the ram and he goat, . The days of suspension of the daily sacrifice, and desolation of the sanctuary, ,14. Gabriel comforteth Daniel, and interpreteth the vision, . This follows then in time after the former. Those things that were meet for the Chaldees to know are recorded by Daniel in that tongue; but now he writes in Hebrew, which lasts to the end of the book, because these things relate to the church of Christ, Jew and Gentile, to the end of the world. In the other vision he speaks of all the four monarchies, here only of the three first; this vision being both as a part and a comment upon the first.

Daniel 8:1 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, [even unto] me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.Ver. 1. In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar.] Which was his last year, when Babylon was closely besieged: therefore Daniel was not now really at Shushan, but in vision only. A vision appeared unto me.] While waking likely: and for further explication of the former vision, whereof because Daniel made so good use, ampliorem gratiam accipit, saith Oecolampadius, he now receiveth further grace.

VIII (1) The Hebrew language is here resumed. The visions recorded in the remaining portion of the book having no connection with Babylon, the Chaldee dialect is dropped. Third year.—Most probably, not long before the end of his reign. This vision is supplementary to the one recorded in the preceding chapter, giving various details respecting the second and third empires there omitted, showing also how a “little horn” is to grow out of the third as well as out of the fourth empire. At the first—i.e., earlier. (Comp. Daniel 9:21.)

CHAPTER VIII This chapter contains Daniel's vision of the ram and he-goat, 1-14; referring, as explained by the angel, to the Persian and Grecian monarchies, 15-26. The little horn mentioned in the ninth verse, (or fierce king, as interpreted in the twenty-third,) is supposed by some to denote Antiochus Epiphanes; but seems more properly to apply to the Roman power in general, by which the polity and temple of the Jews were destroyed, on account of the great transgressions of these ancient people of God; and particularly because of their very obstinate and unaccountable rejection of the glorious doctrines of Christianity, which had been preached among them by Jesus Christ and his apostles, and the truth of which God had attested "by signs and wonders, and by divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost." Daniel is then informed of the two thousand and three hundred prophetic days (that is, years) which must elapse before the sanctuary be cleansed; or, in other words, before righteousness shall prevail over the whole earth. This period is supposed, with considerable probability to have had its commencement when Alexander the Great invaded Asia, in the year before Christ 334. This will bring the close of it to about the end of the SIXTH chiliad of the world; when, as already observed, some astonishing changes are expected to take place in the moral condition of the human race; when the power of Antichrist, both Papal and Mohammedan, shall be totally annihilated, and universal dominion given to the saints of the Most High. The chapter concludes with the distress of Daniel on account of the fearful judgments with which his country should be visited in after ages, 27. NOTES ON CHAP. VIII Verse 1. In the third year of the reign of - Belshazzar] We now come once more to the Hebrew, the Chaldee part of the book being finished. As the Chaldeans had a particular interest both in the history and prophecies from Daniel 2:4 to the end of Da 7:28, the whole is written in Chaldee, but as the prophecies which remain concern times posterior to the Chaldean monarchy, and principally relate to the Church and people of God generally, they are written in the Hebrew language, this being the tongue in which God chose to reveal all his counsels given under the Old Testament relative to the New.

1. In the third year &c.] See the note on Daniel 7:1. at the first] properly, at the beginning (Genesis 13:3; Genesis 41:21; Genesis 43:18; Genesis 43:20). The reference is to ch. 7 where the first of Daniel’s visions is recorded.

In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar - In regard to Belshazzar, see Intro. to Dan. 5 Section II.

1. If this were the third year of Belshazzar’s co-regency, this vision chronologically preceded the narration of chap. v while coming two years later than that of chap. 7.