Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Daniel · About this commentary
A King of Fierce Countenance
Daniel 8:23-26
23 “In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have come to the full, a king of fierce face, and understanding riddles, will stand up. · WEB
The horn is described at length and never named, and every line says the same thing — this power is sustained by something other than its own strength, and its quarrel is with a Prince.
In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have come to the full, a king of fierce face, and understanding riddles, will stand up Daniel 8:23.
After the four, not among them. Understanding riddles — a mind for hidden things, intelligence rather than force, the same faculty the eyes in the horn suggested Daniel 7:8. And when the transgressors have come to the full dates the rise morally rather than politically: this power arrives when a condition has ripened, the way the Amorites' iniquity had to fill up before judgment came Genesis 15:16.
His power will be mighty, but not by his own power Daniel 8:24.
The key sentence in the description. Something sustains this king that is not his own strength — the phrase is used of him and of the four before him Daniel 8:22 and never of the ram or the goat, whose might was simply their own. A power whose greatness is borrowed and whose enmity is aimed at heaven is, in the plain reading of Scripture, borrowing from somewhere: the last book describes a beast to whom the dragon gave his power and his throne Revelation 13:2 Revelation 13:4, and warns of a working with all power and signs and lying wonders 2 Thessalonians 2:9.
He will destroy the mighty ones and the holy people. Through his policy he will cause deceit to prosper in his hand Daniel 8:24–25.
The victims are named — the holy people, as in the trampled host Daniel 8:10 and the worn-out saints Daniel 7:25 — and the instrument is named too: policy, and deceit prospering. This is the portrait of a power that succeeds by what it teaches and administers rather than by what it besieges; truth had been cast to the ground in the vision itself Daniel 8:12.
He will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many in their security.
The self-magnifying that ran up the chapter's scale Daniel 8:4 Daniel 8:8 Daniel 8:11 reaches its last stage, and it is interior — in his heart, the pride that does not need an audience. And in their security: the destruction falls on people who believed themselves safe, which is the most disquieting clause in the profile. This power's harm is not chiefly done to those who resist it.
He will also stand up against the prince of princes, but he will be broken without human hands Daniel 8:25.
There is the summary of the whole description. Not against nations — against the prince of princes, the same Prince whose continual ministry was taken away and whose sanctuary was cast down Daniel 8:11. Every other charge is subordinate to that one, and it is why the chapter's remedy is a sanctuary set right rather than an army raised Daniel 8:14.
And the end matches the nature: broken without human hands — the stone in the first vision was cut out without hands and ground the kingdoms to chaff Daniel 2:34 Daniel 2:45; the court in the second took the dominion away by verdict Daniel 7:26; the last book ends the same power by the breath of his mouth 2 Thessalonians 2:8. A power that rose by means that were not its own is put down by means that are not human either.
The vision of the evenings and mornings which has been told is true; but seal up the vision, for it belongs to many days to come Daniel 8:26.
True, and sealed — not withdrawn but reserved, because its terminus is distant Daniel 12:4 Daniel 12:9. The two statements belong together: the certainty is asserted in the same breath as the delay.
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