The ram and the goat
Daniel 8
27 verses≈ 6 minBSB
Images are artistic interpretations.
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Where we are
- 1Exiles at courtBabylon, 605 BC: four young men and the king’s food
- 2The king’s dreamAbout 603 BC: a statue, a stone, a kingdom forever
- 3The fiery furnaceThree men who would not bow
- 4The great treeNebuchadnezzar humbled, then praising God
- 5The writing on the wall539 BC: Belshazzar’s feast, Babylon’s last night
- 6The lions’ denDarius the Mede, and a man who kept praying
- 7Four beasts and the Son of ManBelshazzar’s first year: the kingdoms again
- 8The ram and the goatMedia and Persia, Greece, and a proud hornChapter 8
- 9Seventy weeksDarius’s first year: Daniel’s prayer and Gabriel’s answer
- 10–12The last visionCyrus’s third year: kings, the end, and the rising
Daniel’s Vision of the Ram and the Goat
In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one that had appeared to me earlier.
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Daniel
Then I lifted up my eyes and saw a ram with two horns standing beside the canal. The horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one grew up later.
I saw the ram charging toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against him, and there was no deliverance from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.
He came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and rushed at him with furious power. I saw him approach the ram in a rage against him, and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against him, and the goat threw him to the ground and trampled him, and no one could deliver the ram from his power.
Thus the goat became very great, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off, and four prominent horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven.
From one of these horns a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the Beautiful Land.
Daniel
It magnified itself, even to the Prince of the host; it removed His daily sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary. And in the rebellion, the host and the daily sacrifice were given over to the horn, and it flung truth to the ground and prospered in whatever it did.
Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long until the fulfillment of the vision of the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host to be trampled?”
He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be properly restored.”
Question
Quick question
The little horn grows great and turns against God’s own worship. Read 8:11–12 again before you answer.
What did the little horn take away (8:11)?
Gabriel Interprets Daniel’s Vision
Daniel
While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard the voice of a man calling from between the banks of the Ulai: “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.”
As he came near to where I stood, I was terrified and fell facedown. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.”
Daniel
While he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me, helped me to my feet,
and said, “Behold, I will make known to you what will happen in the latter time of wrath, because it concerns the appointed time of the end.
The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. The shaggy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king. The four horns that replaced the broken one represent four kingdoms that will rise from that nation but will not have the same power.
Stylised map · locations approximate
On the map
From the west
Persia’s ram charged west, north and south (8:4). Greece came from the far west: Alexander of Macedonia took Egypt, Babylon and Susa between 334 and 330 BC.
In the latter part of their reign, when the rebellion has reached its full measure, an insolent king, skilled in intrigue, will come to the throne. His power will be great, but it will not be his own. He will cause terrible destruction and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men along with the holy people.
Through his craft and by his hand, he will cause deceit to prosper, and in his own mind he will make himself great. In a time of peace he will destroy many, and he will even stand against the Prince of princes.
Yet he will be broken off, but not by human hands.
Daniel 8:25
The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been spoken is true. Now you must seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.”
I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was confounded by the vision; it was beyond understanding.
0:11
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
Pray
Pray
Lord, proud powers rise and do as they please, and they are broken off without a human hand. When I can’t understand what You show me, give me strength to get up and do the work in front of me, faithful to You.
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Daniel 8
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A verse to carry with you
Yet he will be broken off, but not by human hands.
Daniel 8:25
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