The vision. - Daniel 8:3. Daniel first sees one ram, איל, standing by the river. The אחד (one) does not here stand for the indefinite article, but is a numeral, in contradistinction to the two horns which the one ram has. The two horns of the ram were high, but the one was higher than the other, the higher coming up later. האחת does not mean the first, but the one, and השּׁנית the other; for the higher grew up last. This is not to be understood as if Daniel first saw the ram without horns, and then saw the horns grow up, and at length the one horn become higher than the other (v. Leng., Hitzig); but that from the first Daniel saw the ram with two horns, but afterwards saw the one horn grow higher than the other (Kliefoth). The angel (Daniel 8:20) explains the ram with two horns of the king of Media and Persia. This does not mean that the two horns are to be understood (with Theodoret) of the two dynasties of Cyrus and of Darius Hystaspes; but since the ram represents the one kingdom of the Medes and Persians, so the two horns represent the people of the Medes and Persians, from the union of which the Medo-Persian kingdom grew up. Both nations were the horns, i.e., the power of the monarchy; therefore are they both high. The one horn, which afterwards grew up higher than the other, represents the Persians, who raised themselves above the Medians. A ram and goat, as emblems of kings, princes, chiefs, often occur; cf. Isaiah 14:9; Ezekiel 34:17; Ezekiel 39:18; Jeremiah 50:8; Zechariah 10:3. In Bundehesch the guardian spirit of the Persian kingdom appears under the form of a ram with clean feet and sharp-pointed horns, and, according to Amm. Marcell. xix. 1, the Persian king, when he stood at the head of his army, bore, instead of the diadem, the head of a ram (cf. Hv.). The point of resemblance of this symbol is to be sought, not in the richness (the wool) and in the aggressive nature (the horns) of the ram (Theod., Venema), but the ram and the he-goat form, as Hofmann has justly remarked, a contrast to dull firmness and nimble lightness, as the bear and the panther.

The ram stands by the river and pushes toward the west, north, and south, but not toward the east. The river is thus not the one flowing on the east of Susa, for, standing there, the ram pushing toward the west from Susa would push against the capital of his kingdom, but the one flowing on the west; and the ram is to be conceived of as standing on the western bank of this river, from whence he pushed down with his horns all beasts before him, i.e., subdued all nations and kingdoms to his power in three regions of the earth. In the west he pushed against Babylon, Syria, and Asia Minor; in the south, Egypt; in the north, the Armenian and Scythian nations. These he subdued and incorporated in the Persian kingdom. He did not push toward the east - not because he could only push forwards and against that which was nearer, but not, without changing his position, backwards (Hitzig); nor because the Medo-Persians themselves came from the east (v. Leng., Kran.); not yet because the conquests of the Persians did not stretch toward the east (Hv.), for Cyrus and Darius subdued nations to the east of Persia even as far as to the Indus; but because, for the unfolding of the Medo-Persian monarchy as a world-power, its conquests in the east were subordinate, and therefore are not mentioned. The pushing toward the three world-regions corresponds to the three ribs in the mouth of the bear, Daniel 7:5, and intimates that the Medo-Persian world-kingdom, in spite of the irresistibility of its arms, did not, however, extend its power into all the regions of the world. חיּוח, to push, of beast, Exodus 21:28, in the Piel figuratively is used of nations, Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalm 44:6. יעמדוּ is potentialis: could not stand. The masculine is here used, because חיּות (beasts) represents kingdoms and nations. כרצנו עשׂה, did according to his will, expresses arbitrary conduct, a despotic behaviour. הגדּיל, became great. The word does not mean to become haughty, for בּלבבו, in his heart, is not added here as it is in Psalm 44:25, but to magnify the action. It is equivalent to לעשׂות הגדּיל in Joel 2:20 (hath done great things), and Psalm 126:2-3, in the sense of to become great, powerful; cf. Daniel 8:8.

Hosea 2:8 Parallel Commentaries

she.

Isaiah 1:3 The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib: but Israel does not know, my people does not consider.

Habakkuk 1:16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

Acts 17:23-25 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD...

Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind...

her corn.

Hosea 2:5 For their mother has played the harlot: she that conceived them has done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers...

Hosea 10:1 Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars...

Judges 9:27 And they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and stepped the grapes, and made merry...

Jeremiah 7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven...

Jeremiah 44:17,18 But we will certainly do whatever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven...

Ezekiel 16:16-19 And of your garments you did take, and decked your high places with divers colors, and played the harlot thereupon...

Daniel 5:3,4,23 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king...

Luke 15:13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country...

Luke 16:1,2 And he said also to his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward...

wine. Heb. new wine.

Hosea 4:11 Prostitution and wine and new wine take away the heart.

Isaiah 24:7-9 The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry hearted do sigh...

which they prepared for Baal. or, wherewith they made Baal.

Hosea 8:4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not...

Hosea 13:2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding...

Exodus 32:2-4 And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters...

Judges 17:1-5 And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah...

Isaiah 46:6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he makes it a god: they fall down, yes...