Daniel 7:8

7:8 “As I was contemplating the horns, another horn – a small one – came up between them, and three of the former horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. ¹  This horn had eyes resembling human eyes and a mouth speaking arrogant ²  things.

Daniel 7:20-21

7:20 I also wanted to know ³  the meaning of the ten horns on its head, and of that other horn which came up and before which three others fell. This was the horn that had eyes ⁴  and a mouth speaking arrogant things, whose appearance was more formidable than the others. ⁵  7:21 While I was watching, that horn began to wage war against the holy ones and was defeating ⁶  them,

Daniel 8:20

8:20 The ram that you saw with the two horns stands for the kings of Media and Persia.

Daniel 8:22

8:22 The horn that was broken ⁷  and in whose place there arose four others stands for four kingdoms that will arise from his nation, though they will not have his strength.

Daniel 8:9

8:9 From one of them came a small horn. ⁸  But it grew to be very big, toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. ⁹ 

Daniel 8:21

8:21 The male goat ¹⁰  is the king of Greece, ¹¹  and the large horn between its eyes is the first king.

Daniel 8:8

8:8 The male goat acted even more arrogantly. But no sooner had the large horn become strong than it was broken, and there arose four conspicuous horns ¹²  in its place, ¹³  extending toward the four winds of the sky. ¹⁴ 

Daniel 8:3

8:3 I looked up ¹⁵  and saw ¹⁶  a ¹⁷  ram with two horns standing at the canal. Its two horns were both long, ¹⁸  but one was longer than the other. The longer one was coming up after the shorter one.

Daniel 8:6-7

8:6 It came to the two-horned ram that I had seen standing beside the canal and rushed against it with raging strength. ¹⁹  8:7 I saw it approaching the ram. It went into a fit of rage against the ram ²⁰  and struck it ²¹  and broke off its two horns. The ram had no ability to resist it. ²²  The goat hurled the ram ²³  to the ground and trampled it. No one could deliver the ram from its power. ²⁴ 

Daniel 7:11

7:11 “Then I kept on watching because of the arrogant words of the horn that was speaking. I was watching ²⁵  until the beast was killed and its body destroyed and thrown into ²⁶  the flaming fire.

Daniel 7:24

7:24 The ten horns

mean that ten kings will arise from that kingdom.

Another king will arise after them,

but he will be different from the earlier ones.

He will humiliate ²⁷  three kings.

Daniel 8:5

8:5 While I was contemplating all this, ²⁸  a male goat ²⁹  was coming from the west over the surface of all the land ³⁰  without touching the ground. This goat had a conspicuous horn ³¹  between its eyes.

Daniel 8:4

8:4 I saw that the ram was butting westward, northward, and southward. No animal ³²  was able to stand before it, and there was none who could deliver from its power. ³³  It did as it pleased and acted arrogantly. ³⁴ 

Daniel 7:7

7:7 “After these things, as I was watching in the night visions ³⁵  a fourth beast appeared – one dreadful, terrible, and very strong. ³⁶  It had two large rows ³⁷  of iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns.

Daniel 3:5

3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ³⁸  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ³⁹  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected.

Daniel 3:7

3:7 Therefore when they all ⁴⁰  heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, ⁴¹  and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and language groups began bowing down and paying homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected.

Daniel 3:10

3:10 You have issued an edict, O king, that everyone must bow down and pay homage to the golden statue when they hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music.

Daniel 3:15

3:15 Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must bow down and pay homage to the statue that I had made. If you don’t pay homage to it, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. Now, who is that god who can rescue you from my power?” ⁴² 

Daniel 8:10

8:10 It grew so big it reached the army ⁴³  of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars ⁴⁴  to the ground, where it trampled them.

Daniel 8:12

8:12 The army was given over, ⁴⁵  along with the daily sacrifice, in the course of his sinful rebellion. ⁴⁶  It hurled ⁴⁷  truth ⁴⁸  to the ground and enjoyed success. ⁴⁹ 

[7:8]  ¹ tn Aram “were uprooted from before it.”

[7:8]  ² tn Aram “great.” So also in vv. 11, 20.

[7:20]  ³ tn The words “I also wanted to know” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:20]  ⁴ tc The conjunction in the MT before “eyes” is odd. The ancient versions do not seem to presuppose it.

[7:20]  ⁵ tn Aram “greater than its companions.”

[7:21]  ⁶ tn Aram “prevailing against” (KJV and ASV both similar); NASB “overpowering them”; TEV “conquered them.”

[8:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “the broken one.” The word “horn” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.

[8:9]  ⁸ sn This small horn is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who controlled the Seleucid kingdom from ca. 175-164 B.C. Antiochus was extremely hostile toward the Jews and persecuted them mercilessly.

[8:9]  ⁹ sn The expression the beautiful land (Heb. הַצֶּבִי [hatsÿvi] = “the beauty”) is a cryptic reference to the land of Israel. Cf. 11:16, 41, where it is preceded by the word אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”).

[8:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the he-goat, the buck.” The expression is odd, and the second word may be an explanatory gloss.

[8:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Javan.”

[8:8]  ¹² tn The word “horns” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[8:8]  ¹³ sn The four conspicuous horns refer to Alexander’s successors. After his death, Alexander’s empire was divided up among four of his generals: Cassander, who took Macedonia and Greece; Lysimachus, who took Thrace and parts of Asia Minor; Seleucus, who took Syria and territory to its east; and Ptolemy, who took control of Egypt.

[8:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[8:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “lifted my eyes.”

[8:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and behold.”

[8:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “one.” The Hebrew numerical adjective occasionally functions like an English indefinite article. See GKC 401 §125.b.

[8:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “high” (also “higher” later in this verse).

[8:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the wrath of its strength.”

[8:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “him.”

[8:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “the ram.”

[8:7]  ²² tn Heb “stand before him.”

[8:7]  ²³ tn Heb “he hurled him.” The referents of both pronouns (the male goat and the ram) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:7]  ²⁴ sn The goat of Daniel’s vision represents Greece; the large horn represents Alexander the Great. The ram stands for Media-Persia. Alexander’s rapid conquest of the Persians involved three battles of major significance which he won against overwhelming odds: Granicus (334 B.C.), Isus (333 B.C.), and Gaugemela (331 B.C.).

[7:11]  ²⁵ tc The LXX and Theodotion lack the words “I was watching” here. It is possible that these words in the MT are a dittography from the first part of the verse.

[7:11]  ²⁶ tn Aram “and given over to” (so NRSV).

[7:24]  ²⁷ tn Or “subjugate”; KJV, NASB, NIV “subdue”; ASV, NRSV “put down.”

[8:5]  ²⁸ tn The words “all this” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[8:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and behold, a he-goat of the goats.”

[8:5]  ³⁰ tn Or “of the whole earth” (NAB, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[8:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “a horn of vision” [or “conspicuousness”], i.e., “a conspicuous horn,” one easily seen.

[8:4]  ³² tn Or “beast” (NAB).

[8:4]  ³³ tn Heb “hand.” So also in v. 7.

[8:4]  ³⁴ tn In the Hiphil the Hebrew verb גָּדַל (gadal, “to make great; to magnify”) can have either a positive or a negative sense. For the former, used especially of God, see Ps 126:2, 3; Joel 2:21. In this chapter (8:4, 8, 11, 25) the word has a pejorative sense, describing the self-glorification of this king. The sense seems to be that of vainly assuming one’s own superiority through deliberate hubris.

[7:7]  ³⁵ tn The Aramaic text has also “and behold.” So also in vv. 8, 13.

[7:7]  ³⁶ sn The fourth animal differs from the others in that it is nondescript. Apparently it was so fearsome that Daniel could find nothing with which to compare it. Attempts to identify this animal as an elephant or other known creature are conjectural.

[7:7]  ³⁷ tn The Aramaic word for “teeth” is dual rather than plural, suggesting two rows of teeth.

[3:5]  ³⁸ sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.

[3:5]  ³⁹ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[3:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Aram “all the peoples.”

[3:7]  ⁴¹ tc Though not in the Aramaic text of BHS, this word appears in many medieval Hebrew MSS, some LXX MSS, and Vulgate. Cf. vv. 5, 10, 15.

[3:15]  ⁴² tn Aram “hand.” So also in v. 17.

[8:10]  ⁴³ tn Traditionally, “host.” The term refers to God’s heavenly angelic assembly, which he sometimes leads into battle as an army.

[8:10]  ⁴⁴ sn In prescientific Israelite thinking the stars were associated with the angelic members of God’s heavenly assembly. See Judg 5:20; Job 38:7; Isa 40:26. In west Semitic mythology the stars were members of the high god’s divine assembly (see Isa 14:13).

[8:12]  ⁴⁵ tc The present translation reads וּצְבָאָהּ נִתַּן (utsÿva’ah nittan) for the MT וְצָבָא תִּנָּתֵן (vÿtsava’ tinnaten). The context suggests a perfect rather than an imperfect verb.

[8:12]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “in (the course of) rebellion.” The meaning of the phrase is difficult to determine. It could mean “due to rebellion,” referring to the failures of the Jews, but this is not likely since it is not a point made elsewhere in the book. The phrase more probably refers to the rebellion against God and the atrocities against the Jews epitomized by Antiochus.

[8:12]  ⁴⁷ tc Two medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX have a passive verb here: “truth was hurled to the ground” (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV).

[8:12]  ⁴⁸ sn Truth here probably refers to the Torah. According to 1 Macc 1:56, Antiochus initiated destruction of the sacred books of the Jews.

[8:12]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “it acted and prospered.”