Sefer Daniel is divided into two parts. The first part deals with what Daniel himself experienced - his history, the royal court, his being cast into the lions' den, and everything related to that. The second part deals with the visions Daniel saw concerning the End of Days. Chapter 8 belongs to the second part, and it comes as a completion of the vision Daniel saw in the previous chapter.
בִּשְׁנַת שָׁלוֹשׁ לְמַלְכוּת בֵּלְאשַׁצַּר הַמֶּלֶךְ חָזוֹן נִרְאָה אֵלַי אֲנִי דָנִיֵּאל אַחֲרֵי הַנִּרְאָה אֵלַי בַּתְּחִלָּה׃ - "In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, I, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the beginning."
On the surface, this phrasing is puzzling: the previous vision took place in the first year of Belshazzar, and this vision occurred in the third year - it is self-evident that it came after it! What, then, is Scripture teaching us with the words "after that which appeared to me at the beginning"? The Malbim explains, based also on the commentary of the Abarbanel, that "after" here is not merely a chronological statement, but a substantive one: the second vision comes to complete the first. There is a direct connection between the two visions - this one comes to elucidate that one.
In the first vision, Daniel saw four beasts. The first beast, the lion, was the kingdom of Babylonia that ruled at the time, symbolizing Nebuchadnezzar who lived in that era - and there was no need to explain it. The fourth beast, the terrifying and unrecognizable creature, is the kingdom that will exist in the End of Days, which the angel explained to him in the fullest way possible, in meticulous detail. But regarding the second and third beasts - the bear and the leopard - he spoke only briefly. He mentioned their nature, but did not state whether it would be good or bad for us during their rule, what their relationship with Israel would be, or in what manner they would reign over us. That was left undescribed.
Furthermore, Daniel saw the destruction of the beasts. He was already witnessing the decline of the Babylonian Empire, and the angel showed him the downfall of the final kingdom, the terrifying beast - how ultimately the Holy One, Blessed is He, will cast down the thrones of those kings, and Hashem will resume His reign. But regarding how the two middle beasts, the bear and the leopard, would fall - that was not shown. In addition, the vision sought to clarify the cryptic end-time mentioned as "a time, times, and half a time," which remained obscure. The current vision comes to address all of this.
Notice that while in the previous chapter the beasts were non-kosher - a bear and a leopard - here the prophet shifts to the symbolism of kosher animals: a ram and a he-goat. The explanation is that these kingdoms did not overly oppress the Jewish people, and therefore they were likened to pure, domesticated animals that do not cause harm, rather than predatory beasts.
And if you ask, why then were they likened to a bear and a leopard in the previous chapter? The Malbim explains: the previous chapter spoke of their kingdom and rule in relation to the nations of the world, where they were indeed like a bear and a leopard - they oppressed them and ruled over them with a heavy hand, which is why they were compared to non-kosher, aggressive beasts. But in relation to the Jewish people, we did not suffer much from them: the kings of Media and Persia were benevolent toward Israel, and regarding Alexander of Macedon it is recorded that he honored Shimon HaTzaddik, caused no harm, and did not destroy Jerusalem.
It would have been sufficient to say, "a vision appeared to me." Rather, it comes to tell you: the first vision, of the statue and the kingdoms - the head of gold, the chest and arms of silver, followed by bronze - was also seen by Nebuchadnezzar. The core principles were already communicated to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream. However, the current vision and its details were not revealed to Nebuchadnezzar at all. Therefore, Daniel emphasizes, "appeared to me, I, Daniel" - a dream that only I saw, which no other person had seen before me.
וָאֶרְאֶה בֶּחָזוֹן וַיְהִי בִּרְאֹתִי וַאֲנִי בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה אֲשֶׁר בְּעֵילָם הַמְּדִינָה וָאֶרְאֶה בֶּחָזוֹן וַאֲנִי הָיִיתִי עַל־אוּבַל אוּלָי׃ - And I saw in the vision; and it was, when I saw, that I was in Shushan the capital, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the stream of Ulai.
Here there is a doubling and tripling of the same expression: "And I saw in the vision," "and it was, when I saw," "and I saw in the vision" yet again, and in the following verse, "And I lifted my eyes and saw." Seemingly, stating it once would have been sufficient. The Malbim explains: Daniel saw three things that did not yet exist in reality, which is why he reiterated and emphasized that it was entirely within the realm of a vision.
First, "and I was in Shushan the capital, which is in the province of Elam" - Shushan was not yet a capital at that time. Shushan became a capital only later, following the episode of the throne: the king's craftsmen were in Shushan, and after building the throne they were unable to transport it, so the king came to Shushan. Especially since we are speaking of the era of Belshazzar, when Shushan was not a capital at all, and only afterward came the kingdom of Media, followed by the kingdom of Persia. Therefore he emphasized, "And I saw in the vision" - what I saw was strictly a vision, a future matter that did not yet exist; I am seeing that which is destined to be.
Second, "and I was by the stream of Ulai." An uval is a stream, a river, and "Ulai" is the name of the river, likely a Persian or Median name. This river, too, says the Malbim, was not yet called by that name at the time: just as the kings of Babylon gave names to rivers, so too the kings of Persia and Media later named this river. Therefore, he reiterated that he saw this in a vision - the river's very identity and name existed then only in vision, not yet in reality.
וָאֶשָּׂא עֵינַי וָאֶרְאֶה וְהִנֵּה אַיִל אֶחָד עֹמֵד לִפְנֵי הָאֻבָל וְלוֹ קְרָנָיִם וְהַקְּרָנַיִם גְּבֹהוֹת וְהָאַחַת גְּבֹהָה מִן־הַשֵּׁנִית וְהַגְּבֹהָה עֹלָה בָּאַחֲרֹנָה׃ - And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram was standing before the stream, and it had two horns, and the horns were high, and one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.
"And I lifted my eyes and saw" - here he transitions to describing the vision itself, which is why a fresh expression of seeing is used. This is the vision that he records and describes for future generations in the Book of Daniel.
The ram comes to symbolize the joint kingdom of Media and Persia, which went hand in hand. The first to rule was the kingdom of Media, which ruled for one year, followed by the kingdom of Persia - and the king of Persia was the son-in-law of the king of Media. The two horns symbolize the two kingdoms. "And the horns were high" - each was an exalted and mighty empire. "And one was higher than the other" - Cyrus the Persian was more of a warrior, more valiant, and his reign was more formidable and potent than the reign of Darius the Mede. "And the higher one came up last" - meaning it rose to prominence later: the first king was Darius the Mede, and Cyrus the Persian, who was the greater ("higher"), ruled second, so he is like the horn that grew up last.
רָאִיתִי אֶת־הָאַיִל מְנַגֵּחַ יָמָּה וְצָפוֹנָה וָנֶגְבָּה וְכׇל־חַיּוֹת לֹא־יַעַמְדוּ לְפָנָיו וְאֵין מַצִּיל מִיָּדוֹ וְעָשָׂה כִרְצֹנוֹ וְהִגְדִּיל׃ - I saw the ram goring westward, northward, and southward, and no beasts could stand before it, nor was there anyone to rescue from its power; and it did according to its will and magnified itself.
"Westward" - the west; "northward" - the north; "and southward" - the south. The eastern direction is missing, and why? Because Persia itself was situated in the east, and from there it gored toward all the other directions, so there was no reason to mention the eastern direction.
"Nor could any beasts stand before it" - Cyrus the Persian conquered many lands in all these directions, and the other kingdoms could not stand before him. Even the kingdom that preceded Alexander the Great, the reign of his father Philip, would send tribute to Darius - to teach you that the kingdoms could not stand before him.
וַאֲנִי הָיִיתִי מֵבִין וְהִנֵּה צְפִיר־הָעִזִּים בָּא מִן־הַמַּעֲרָב עַל־פְּנֵי כׇל־הָאָרֶץ וְאֵין נוֹגֵעַ בָּאָרֶץ וְהַצָּפִיר קֶרֶן חָזוּת בֵּין עֵינָיו׃ - "As I was contemplating, behold, a he-goat came from the west across the face of the entire earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes."
"As I was contemplating" - observing and examining the matter, wanting to see how long the success of that goring ram would endure. And then a he-goat arrives, which is the kingdom of Greece. And why is it called a tzafir? An expression denoting something small, for it was considered small in comparison to Persia, and only grew gradually.
"Came from the west" - Greece is considered west of Persia. "Across the face of the entire earth" - they penetrate into Darius's kingdom and across his borders. "Without touching the ground" - they did not halt in any particular place to begin a slow conquest, but moved like one flying through the air to land directly upon the royal house: they wanted the king himself.
"And the goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes" - this is Alexander the Great, who came to conquer the king. A horn with eyes, as we saw with the small horn, alludes to intellect and wisdom. The reign of Alexander the Great was an empire built with wisdom and intellect, unlike other kingdoms that based themselves solely on brute force. This fits the entire nature of the kingdoms of Edom, which are built on intellect and reason, as distinct from the kingdoms of Ishmael, which are built purely on force. The wisdom of political governance originated in Greek culture, and to this day they have books with instructions on how to govern a state: how leadership should be conducted, in what order, institutional systems of rule - not a king who simply comes and acts arbitrarily as he pleases. Therefore, it is said that he had "a conspicuous horn between its eyes," for he conducted his affairs with wisdom and intellect.
וַיָּבֹא עַד־הָאַיִל בַּעַל הַקְּרָנַיִם אֲשֶׁר רָאִיתִי עֹמֵד לִפְנֵי הָאֻבָל וַיָּרׇץ אֵלָיו בַּחֲמַת כֹּחוֹ׃ - "He came up to the two-horned ram that I had seen standing before the river, and ran at him in the fury of his power."
He reaches right up to the two-horned ram, for as mentioned, he wanted the head of the king himself: he was not seeking the country and did not come merely to take wealth, but advanced directly to the royal capital. "That I had seen standing before the river" - this emphasizes that Darius was not at all perturbed by him and did not go out to confront him at all. The Malbim explains that he merely sent his army commander to deal with that bothersome fly. There was great arrogance on the king's part toward Alexander the Great, and a total disdain for his strength.
It is worth noting: Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty. That is to say, all of his conquests took place while he was still practically a youth - eighteen, twenty, twenty-two years old. For an ordinary person, it takes forty or fifty years to become a general, yet here, in his early twenties, he was already waging wars, conquering the world, and ruling supreme. Darius therefore disdained him and did not take him seriously. Regarding this, the verse says: "And ran at him in the fury of his power."
וּרְאִיתִיו מַגִּיעַ אֵצֶל הָאַיִל וַיִּתְמַרְמַר אֵלָיו וַיַּךְ אֶת־הָאַיִל וַיְשַׁבֵּר אֶת־שְׁתֵּי קְרָנָיו וְלֹא־הָיָה כֹחַ בָּאַיִל לַעֲמֹד לְפָנָיו וַיַּשְׁלִיכֵהוּ אַרְצָה וַיִּרְמְסֵהוּ וְלֹא־הָיָה מַצִּיל לָאַיִל מִיָּדוֹ׃ - "I saw him reach the ram and he was enraged at him; he struck the ram and broke its two horns, and the ram had no strength to stand before him, but he cast him to the ground and trampled him, and there was no one to rescue the ram from his hand."
"Reach the ram" - he closed in face-to-face. "And he was enraged at him" - he directed intense bitterness toward him. The Malbim explains: Darius offered him wives and concubines, silver, gold, and slaves, and even offered to give him his daughter in marriage - but Alexander wanted none of it. He wanted only to subjugate the king; he wanted his head and nothing less. Why was this so? Because Darius had shown contempt toward him, which caused immense resentment, so that Alexander would settle for nothing less than total humiliation and the subjugation of the king himself. "And there was no one to rescue the ram from his hand" - Alexander the Great's power was so overwhelming that even the nations on friendly terms with Darius did not dare to intervene and help rescue him.
וּצְפִיר הָעִזִּים הִגְדִּיל עַד־מְאֹד וּכְעׇצְמוֹ נִשְׁבְּרָה הַקֶּרֶן הַגְּדֹלָה וַתַּעֲלֶנָה חָזוּת אַרְבַּע תַּחְתֶּיהָ לְאַרְבַּע רוּחוֹת הַשָּׁמָיִם׃ - And the he-goat grew exceedingly great, and when he became strong, the great horn was broken, and in its place arose four conspicuous ones toward the four winds of heaven.
The he-goat, who is Alexander of Macedon, who had been small, grew exceedingly great, and the kingdom of Greece expanded its dominion over the entire world. "And when he became strong, the great horn was broken" - Alexander of Macedon died on his own; no other king conquered him, nor did anyone subjugate him. The Abarbanel explains that he died of deadly poison - they poisoned him, since they were unable to defeat him in battle, and he died at the age of thirty.
"And in its place arose four conspicuous ones toward the four winds of heaven" - after his death, his kingdom was divided toward the four winds of heaven, among four kings. That single empire now split into four. The Abarbanel notes that in actuality there were twelve kings, but the verse enumerates the primary kingdoms across the four directions of the world.
And these are they, as the Malbim writes, sourced in the Abarbanel: Ptolemy I ruled in Egypt, toward the south. Seleucus ruled in Asia, Assyria, and Babylonia, toward the north - and from his lineage later came the wicked Antiochus. Antiochus I ruled in Persia, toward eastern Asia. And Philip, the brother of Alexander of Macedon, ruled in Greece, toward the west. These are the four primary kingdoms that split off after Alexander's death.
וּמִן־הָאַחַת מֵהֶם יָצָא קֶרֶן־אַחַת מִצְּעִירָה וַתִּגְדַּל־יֶתֶר אֶל־הַנֶּגֶב וְאֶל־הַמִּזְרָח וְאֶל־הַצֶּבִי׃ - And from one of them emerged a horn from small beginnings, and it grew exceedingly toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.
From one of these kingdoms emerged a horn that grew from small beginnings, which is Antiochus Epiphanes - that is, Antiochus the Wicked, as he is referred to in our sacred works because he is the one who persecuted the people of Israel.
To trace the lineage: there was Seleucus, who ruled over Assyria and Babylonia, and he fathered Antiochus I. Antiochus I had two sons: the elder son, Seleucus Callinicus, and the younger son, Antiochus the Great. The younger son, Antiochus the Great, went and killed his brother Seleucus Callinicus, and then began to reign. He too had two sons: Seleucus, and the younger son - Antiochus the Wicked, who is Antiochus Epiphanes. And Antiochus the Wicked, who was the younger, seized power and took the throne from his brother's son, who was the rightful heir to the kingship.
Now we can understand the phrasing of the verse. "A horn from small beginnings [mitze'irah]" - this refers to the end of the dynasty, to Antiochus the Wicked. For from Seleucus, the monarchy passed to Antiochus I, and from him came a younger son, Antiochus the Great, who was the younger of the brothers and rose to reign. He himself had two sons, an elder and a younger, and Antiochus the Wicked, who was the younger, arose to reign. Thus, we have a younger son descending from a younger son, which is contrary to the normal order of monarchy: succession is meant to pass through the eldest; if the eldest dies, the younger may reign, but afterward it should return to the sons of the eldest. Here, however, that was not the case; rather, it passed from younger to younger.
Thus he was "younger" in two respects: in terms of himself, the throne did not belong to him but to his elder brother's son; and in terms of his grandfather's generation, for Seleucus Callinicus was his uncle and the kingship was supposed to continue through him. There is a twofold "youngerness" here - the youngest of the young. This is the meaning of "mitze'irah," with a dagesh in the letter tzadi - meaning, from the younger branch: specifically from the younger one, from one unfit for kingship, did this horn emerge. Furthermore, the word tza'ir (younger/lesser) also connotes contempt, as in the verse, "I am small [tza'ir] and despised."
"And it grew exceedingly toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land" - this horn expanded southward, as he waged war against the king of Egypt in the south and took his land all the way to Alexandria. Afterward, however, the Romans came and forced him to retreat, but during the campaign he succeeded in reaching Alexandria. "Toward the east" - toward the land of Persia. "And toward the glorious land [hatzvi]" - this refers to the Land of Israel. From here on, the text will describe what Antiochus the Wicked did when he arrived here.
The vision in Chapter 8 comes to complete the vision of the four beasts in Chapter 7, elaborating on the two middle kingdoms - Media-Persia and Greece - which were discussed there only briefly, and demonstrating their downfall. Daniel sees a two-horned ram, representing the kingdom of Media and Persia, where the second, taller horn represents Cyrus the Persian. Following it comes a he-goat from the west with a prominent horn between its eyes, representing Alexander of Macedon, whose conquests were carried out with wisdom and strategic insight, and who defeated Darius, who had underestimated his power. Alexander died naturally at the age of thirty, and his empire was divided toward the four winds of heaven. From one of these divisions emerged a "little horn" - the wicked Antiochus, who seized a throne that was not rightfully his, and advanced toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Desirable Land (Eretz Yisrael). From here on, the text describes what he inflicted upon the Jewish people.