Biblion Bible Commentary
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He Will Wear Out the Saints
Daniel 7:23-25
23 “So he said, ‘The fourth animal will be a fourth kingdom on earth, which will be different from all the kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth, and will tread it down and break it in pieces. · WEB
The angel's own description of the little horn — four marks and a time limit — is the most detailed profile of any power in the book.
The fourth animal will be a fourth kingdom on earth, which will be different from all the kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth, and will tread it down and break it in pieces Daniel 7:23.
The interpreter confirms what the symbol meant: a fourth kingdom, universal in reach, and different from its predecessors. As for the ten horns, ten kings will arise out of this kingdom Daniel 7:24 — the fragmentation, stated as the statue had shown it Daniel 2:41. The ten come out of the fourth kingdom, which places them after its unity and inside its territory.
Another will arise after them; and he will be different from the former, and he will put down three kings.
Four marks, and the first two are chronological and characterological. It arises after the ten — later than the division, not alongside it. It is different from the former: not another of the same kind, which is the vision's insistent point about this power. The eyes and the mouth had already said so Daniel 7:8; a horn that sees and speaks is not a horn that merely gores. And it puts down three kings, growing by displacement rather than by invasion from outside.
He will speak words against the Most High Daniel 7:25.
The third mark, and the one the whole chapter keeps returning to. The characteristic act is speech, and it is aimed upward — not at rival kingdoms but at God. This is a power that makes religious claims; the arrogant mouth Daniel 7:8 Daniel 7:11 is doing theology. Scripture describes the same profile elsewhere in the same register: exalting itself above every god, speaking astonishing things, seated where it does not belong Daniel 11:36 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Isaiah 14:13–14.
And will wear out the saints of the Most High.
The fourth mark, and the verb is chosen with care. Not destroy — wear out: attrition, the grinding down of a people over a long period rather than a massacre in an afternoon. This is what verse 21 looked like from heaven's side Daniel 7:21, and it is the reason the saints in this book are commended for perseverance rather than victory.
He will plan to change the times and the law.
And the fifth mark is the most audacious. Times and law — and both belong elsewhere. It was said of God at the book's beginning that he changes the times and the seasons Daniel 2:21; the law of the Most High is his own, and Scripture states repeatedly that it does not shift with the centuries Psalms 89:34 Psalms 111:7–8 Matthew 5:18. A power that plans to alter what God has fixed is not merely disobeying; it is legislating in his seat. The word is plan — intention and attempt, not accomplishment. Even here the prerogative is not actually transferred, and the previous chapter had shown a court where the empire's own unalterable law bound the king who signed it Daniel 6:15; the Most High's law binds a horn that never had authority over it.
And they will be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.
The saints are given into his hand — permitted, the same passive that gave every kingdom its turn — and the permission is dated. A time, times, and half a time is three and a half in the vision's own idiom, the period the last book of Scripture names five different ways and identifies with 1,260 days and 42 months Revelation 12:14 Revelation 12:6 Revelation 11:2–3 Revelation 13:5. In symbolic prophecy the count is symbolic with the rest, by Scripture's stated rule of a day for a year Numbers 14:34 Ezekiel 4:6: a long era of oppression, bounded at both ends. What the horn does not have is unlimited time, and the sentence that grants it its season is the sentence that ends it.
held with reason What this mark means