Daniel 8:8

Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Was broken.—This points to the sudden and unexpected end of Alexander, B.C. 323. The “four horns,” which take the place of the “notable horn,” may mean either that this empire was dispersed to the four winds of heaven on the death of its founder (comp. Daniel 7:2; Daniel 11:4; Jeremiah 49:36; Zechariah 2:6), or it may hint at the ultimate division of the empire into four parts, Thrace, Macedonia, Syria, Egypt, under Symmachus, Cassander, Seleucus, and Ptolemy respectively.

Benson Commentary

Daniel 8:8. Therefore the he-goat waxed very great — See note on chap. Daniel 2:39. The empire of the goat was in its full strength when Alexander died. He was succeeded by his natural brother Philip Aridæus, and by his own two sons before mentioned; but in the space of about fifteen years they were all murdered, and the firstborn, or kingdom, was entirely broken.

And for it came up four notable ones — The royal family being thus extinct, the governors of provinces, who had usurped the power, assumed the title of kings, and by the defeat and death of Antigonus in the battle of Ipsus they were reduced to four, Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus; who parted Alexander’s dominions between them, and divided and settled them into four kingdoms, which are the four notable horns that came up in the room of the first great horn, and are the same as the four heads of the leopard, chap. 7. Toward the four winds of heaven — In the partition of the empire Cassander held Macedonia and Greece, and the western parts; Lysimachus had Thrace, Bithynia, and the northern regions; Ptolemy possessed Egypt and the southern countries; and Seleucus obtained Syria and the eastern provinces. Thus were they divided toward the four winds of heaven.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-14 God gives Daniel a foresight of the destruction of other kingdoms, which in their day were as powerful as that of Babylon. Could we foresee the changes that shall be when we are gone, we should be less affected with changes in our own day. The ram with two horns was the second empire, that of Media and Persia. He saw this ram overcome by a he-goat. This was Alexander the Great. Alexander, when about thirty-three years of age, and in his full strength, died, and showed the vanity of worldly pomp and power, and that they cannot make a man happy. While men dispute, as in the case of Alexander, respecting the death of some prosperous warrior, it is plain that the great First Cause of all had no more of his plan for him to execute, and therefore cut him off. Instead of that one great horn, there came up four notable ones, Alexander's four chief captains. A little horn became a great persecutor of the church and people of God. It seems that the Mohammedan delusion is here pointed out. It prospered, and at one time nearly destroyed the holy religion God's right hand had planted. It is just with God to deprive those of the privileges of his house who despise and profane them; and to make those know the worth of ordinances by the want of them, who would not know it by the enjoyment of them. Daniel heard the time of this calamity limited and determined; but not the time when it should come. If we would know the mind of God, we must apply to Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; not hid from us, but hid for us. There is much difficulty as to the precise time here stated, but the end of it cannot be very distant. God will, for his own glory, see to the cleansing of the church in due time. Christ died to cleanse his church; and he will so cleanse it as to present it blameless to himself.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore the he-goat waxed very great - The Macedonian power, especially under the reign of Alexander.

And when he was strong, the great horn was broken - In the time, or at the period of its greatest strength. Then an event occurred which broke the horn in which was concentrated its power. It is easy to see the application of this to the Macedonian power. At no time was the empire so strong as at the death of Alexander. Its power did not pine away; it was not enfeebled, as monarchies are often, by age, and luxury, and corruption; it was most flourishing and prosperous just at the period when broken by the death of Alexander. Never afterward did it recover its vigour; never was it consolidated again. From that time this mighty empire, broken into separate kingdoms, lost its influence in the world.

And for it came up four notable ones - In the place of this one horn in which all the power was concentrated, there sprang up four others that were distinguished and remarkable. On the word notable, see the notes at Daniel 8:5. This representation would lead us to suppose that the power which had thus been concentrated in one monarchy would be divided and distributed into four, and that instead of that one power there would be four kingdoms that would fill up about the same space in the world, occupy about the same territory, and have about the same characteristics - so that they might be regarded as the succession to the one dynasty. The same representation we have of this one power in Daniel 7:6 : "The beast had also four heads." See also Daniel 11:4 : "His kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven." This accords with the accounts in history of the effect of Alexander's death, for though the kingdom was not by him divided into four parts, yet, from the confusion and conflicts that arose, the power was ultimately concentrated into four dynasties.

At his death, his brother Aridaeus was declared king in his stead, and Perdiccas regent. But the unity of the Macedonian power was gone, and disorder and confusion, and a struggle for empire, immediately succeeded. The author of the books of Maccabees (1 Macc. 1:7-9) says: "So Alexander reigned twelve years, and then died. And his servants bare rule every one in his place. And after his death, they all put crowns upon themselves; so did their sons after them many years; and evils were multiplied in the earth." Alexander died 323 b.c.; Antipater succeeded Perdiccas, 321 b.c.; Ptolemy Lagus the same year took possession of Egypt; Cassander assumed the government of Macedon, 317 b.c.; Seleucus Nicator took possession of Syria, 311 b.c.; in 305 b.c. the successors of Alexander took the title of kings, and in 301 b.c. there occurred the battle of Ipsus, in which Antigonus, who reigned in Asia Minor, was killed, and then followed in that year a formal division of Alexander's empire between the four victorious princes, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus. This great battle of Ipsus, a city of Phrygia, was fought between Antigonus and his son Demetrius on the one side, and the combined forces of these princes on the other.

Antigonus had aimed at universal sovereignty; he had taken and plundered the island of Cyprus; had destroyed the fieet of Ptolemy Lagus, and had assumed the crown. Against him and his usurpations, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus, combined their forces, and the result was his complete overthrow at the battle of Ipsus. - Lengerke, in loc. In this battle, Antigonus lost all his conquests and his life. In the division of the empire, Seleucus Nicator obtained Syria, Babylonia, Media, and Susiana, Armenia, a part of Cappadocia, Cilicia, and his kingdom, in name at least, extended from the Hellespont to the Indies. The kingdom of Lysimachus extended over a part of Thrace, Asia Minor, part of Cappadocia, and the countries within the limits of Mount Taurus. Cassander possessed Macedonia, Thessaly, and a part of Greece. Ptolemy obtained Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrene, and ultimately Ccelo-Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, and a part of Asia Minor and Thrace - Lengerke, in loc.

Toward the four winds of heaven - Toward the four quarters of the world. Thus the dominions of Seleucus were in the east; these of Cassander in the west; those of Ptolemy in the south, and those of Lysimachus in the north.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. when he was strong … great horn was broken—The empire was in full strength at Alexander's death by fever at Babylon, and seemed then least likely to fall. Yet it was then "broken." His natural brother, Philip Aridœus, and his two sons, Alexander Ægus and Hercules, in fifteen months were murdered.

four … toward … four winds—Seleucus, in the east, obtained Syria, Babylonia, Media, &c.; Cassander, in the west, Macedon Thessaly, Greece; Ptolemy, in the south, Egypt, Cyprus, &c.; Lysimachus, in the north, Thrace, Cappadocia, and the north parts of Asia Minor.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The he-goat waxed very great, by conquering all the Eastern empire and power, even to India.

The great horn was broken: this was the mighty power of the Lord of hosts, who is higher than the highest, and stronger than the strongest, though they seem invincible. Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. Selah. When Alexander the Great was greatest, in his youth, not thirtythree years old; when he called himself the son of Jupiter; when he was swoln with victories and successes; then was he broken, and that to pieces, for he, his mother, son, brother, and all his kindred were destroyed. So weak are the greatest to bear prosperity long! for this wonder of men, by pride, luxury, and passion, prepared himself for ruin; he that wept because he had not another world to conquer, and wanted breathing room in this, how soon was he tumbled into a grave of six feet!

For it came up four notable ones:

1. Antipater got Greece.

2. Asia was possessed by Antigonus.

3. Ptolemy got Egypt.

4. Seleucus had Babylon and Syria. All these were variously situated: to the east, Babylon and Syria; to the south, Egypt; to the north, Asia the Less; to the west, Greece.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore the he goat waxed very great,.... The Grecian monarchy, under Alexander, became very powerful, and was very extensive; he not only conquered the Persian empire, but also the Indies, yea, the whole world, as he imagined; and indeed he did bring into subjection to him the greatest part of the then known world; and he was very great in his own esteem, at least reckoned himself lord of the world, called himself the son of Jupiter Ammon, and affected to be worshipped as a god:

and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; when the Grecian monarchy was established, and became very powerful, and reached to the greatest part of the earth, then Alexander the first king of it, a great horn, and powerful monarch, died, or was broken; not as the two horns of the ram, by the power of the enemy; not by violence, but by intemperance, in a drunken fit, or, as was suspected, by poison; and that when he was in the height of his glory, swelled with his victories; and that in the prime of his days, when in his full strength, being in the "thirty third" year of his age:

and for it, or in the room and stead of it (z),

came up four notable ones; or, "four horns of vision" (a); very famous and conspicuous, like that in Daniel 8:5, which were the four kingdoms into which the empire was divided some time after Alexander's death, and the four kings that were over them: the kingdoms were those of Egypt, Greece, Asia, and Syria. Ptolemy was king of Egypt, to which belonged Lybia, Palestine, Arabia, and Caelesyria. Cassander was king of Macedonia and Greece. Lysimachus was king of Asia, to which belonged Thrace, Bithynia, and other places; and Seleucus was king of Syria, and of the eastern countries: these are the four heads of the leopard, or third beast, which signifies the Grecian monarchy, Daniel 7:6 and these were

toward the four winds of heaven; east, west, north, and south: Egypt, with its appendages, lay to the south; Asia, and what belonged to that, to the north; Macedonia and Greece to the west; and Syria to the east: and thus was the Grecian empire divided into four kingdoms, among the successors of Alexander: there were some partitions of it before this into provinces among governors, under the brother and son of Alexander; but after the battle of Ipsus, in which Antigonus, one of Alexander's captains, and a very principal, active, and ambitious man, was slain, and his army routed; the four confederate princes against him, above named, divided by consent the empire between them into separate kingdoms, and became really, and not in title only, kings of them (b); which is what is here prophesied of.

(z) "loco ejus, vel illius", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis. (a) "quatuor cornua conspicua", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "cornua aspectus quatuor", Michaelis. (b) See Prideaux's Connexion, part 1. B. 8. p. 558, 559.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great {i} horn was broken; and for it came up four {k} notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

(i) Alexander's great power was broken: for when he had overcome all the East, he thought to return towards Greece to subdue those that had rebelled, and so died along the way.

(k) That is, who were famous: for almost in the space of fifteen years there were fifteen different successors before this monarchy was divided to these four, of which Cassander had Macedonia, Seleucus had Syria, Antigonus had Asia the less, and Ptolemeus had Egypt.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. Therefore, &c.] And the he goat did very greatly (Daniel 8:4) i.e. performed great exploits.

and when he was strong, the great horn—the ‘conspicuous horn’ of Daniel 8:5—was broken] Alexander was struck down by his fatal malady, just when he had risen to the summit of his power.

and instead of it came up four notable ones] lit. a sight of four, which is explained to mean ‘four conspicuous ones’ (cf. Daniel 8:5, though the expression there is not quite the same). But the explanation is forced: and from Daniel 8:22, end, it would seem also that these four horns were by no means so ‘conspicuous,’ or ‘notable,’ as the original horn; so that very probably LXX and Theod. are right in reading, with a slight change (אחרות for חזות), four other ones.

toward the four winds of heaven] cf. Jeremiah 49:36; Ezekiel 42:20; 1 Chronicles 9:24; and esp. (in the same connexion) ch. Daniel 11:4. See also Daniel 7:2.

Alexander left no legitimate heir (though his widow, Roxana, gave birth to a son shortly after his death); and hence his empire became the prey of rivalries and disputes between his generals. A division of the provinces was agreed upon at a military council held the day after his death; but the only permanent elements in this were the allotment of Egypt to Ptolemy Lagi, and Thrace to Lysimachus. After the death of Perdikkas (who had acted as regent) in 321, a fresh distribution took place at a meeting of generals held at Triparadisus in Syria; and another one, after a four years’ war, undertaken for the purpose of checking the ambitious designs of Alexander’s veteran general Antigonus, in 311. The final settlement was brought about by the battle of Ipsus (in Phrygia), in 301, in which Antigonus was defeated and slain by Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus, who had coalesced against him. The result of this victory was that Cassander obtained Macedonia and Greece, Lysimachus Thrace and Bithynia, Seleucus Syria, Babylonia, and other Eastern countries as far as the Indus, while Ptolemy remained in possession of Egypt. These are the four kingdoms (cf. Daniel 8:22) denoted here by the four ‘horns.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Therefore the he-goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. The two Greek versions differ from the Massoretic only in this - that the four horns are not mentioned as notable horns, but simply ἕτερα, "other." The Peshitta agrees closely with the Massoretic. The Greek versions indicate that the reading they had before them was '"haroth instead of hazooth; hazooth has been borrowed from the fifth verse. The empire of Alexander had reached its greatest extent when the young conqueror fell a victim to what seems malarial fever, aggravated by his drinking. His life was broken off before its legitimate conclusion. At his death there was great confusion. Perdiccas assumed the guardianship of the children of the conqueror, and attempted to succeed him in the empire. After his death Antigonus in turn attempted to secure the imperial power, but was defeated and slain at the battle of Ipsus. The empire of Alexander was then divided into four main portions - Macedonia and Greece, under Cassander; Asia Minor, under Lysimachus; Syria and all the East, under Seleucus; and Cyrene, under Ptolemy. In the two first of these there were several revolutions, but finally the Antigonids established themselves in Macedon, and the Attalids in Asia Minor. Daniel 8:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The transformation of the Javanic kingdom. - By the kingdom of the ram the he-goat became very great, powerful (הגדּיל as in Daniel 8:4). But the great horn was broken at the height of his strength, and four similar horns grew up in its stead, toward the four regions of heaven. חזוּת is here used adverbially, conspicuously: there came forth conspicuously four in its place. This statement does not contradict Daniel 8:22 and Daniel 11:4, according to which the four kingdom shave not the power of the one great horn; for the thought is only this: they represent in themselves a considerable power, without, however, gaining the power of the one undivided kingdom. The breaking of the great horn indicates the breaking up of the monarchy of Alexander by his death. The four horns which grow up in the place of the one great horn are, according to Daniel 8:22, four kingdoms. These are the dynasties of the Diadochs, of whom there were indeed five: Antigonus, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus laid claim to the title of king; but for the first time after the overthrow of Antigonus at the battle of Ipsus, 301 b.c., and thus twenty-two years after the death of Alexander (323 b.c.), they became in reality four kings, and so divided the kingdom among themselves, that Lysimachus had Thrace and Bithynia, - Cassander, Macedonia and Greece, - Seleucus, Syria, Babylonia, and the Eastern countries as far as India, - and Ptolemy, Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia Petrea. But from the fact that this first happened after all the descendants of the royal family had been extirpated, we are not to conclude, with Hvernick, that the breaking of the great horn did not denote the death of Alexander, but the extinction of his race or house; a conclusion which derives no valid support from these words of Justin: "All of them abstained from the use of the insignia of this (royal) dignity while the sons of their king survived. So great was their veneration, that although they had royal wealth and resources, they cared not for the name of kings so long as there existed a legitimate heir to Alexander" (Hist. xv. 2. 13). If the breaking of the horn is placed at the point of time when the horn was powerful, here as well as at Daniel 11:4, the reference of the words to the sudden death of Alexander in the prime of his days, and when in the very height of his victorious career, cannot be disputed; and by the breaking of the horn we can only understand Alexander's death, and the breaking up of the kingdom founded by him, although it was still held together in a considerable degree for two decenniums by his generals, till the most imperious and the most powerful amongst them usurped the rank of kings, and then, after the conquest of Antigonus, a formal division of the kingdom into the four considerable kingdoms here named raised them to royal dignity.

The prophetic representation is not a prediction of historical details, but it gives only the fundamental traces of the development of the world-kingdoms, and that not in the form of a historiographical prophecy, but only so that it sketches the ground-thoughts of the divinely ordained unfolding of these world-kingdoms. This ideal fundamental thought of the prophecy has so wrought itself out in actual history, that from the one great kingdom, after the death of the founder, in the course of time four considerable kingdoms arise. The number four in the prophetic contemplation comes into view only according to its symbolical idea as the number of the world in its extension toward the four regions of heaven, so that thereby only the thought is declared, that a kingdom embracing the world will fall to ruins in a plurality of kingdoms toward all the regions of heaven (Kliefoth). This has been so historically realized, that out of the wars of the Diadochs for the supremacy four kingdoms arose toward the four regions of the earth into longer duration, - that of Cassander (Macedonia) toward the west, that of Seleucus (Babylonia, etc.) toward the east, that of Lysimachus (Thracia and Bithynia) toward the north, and finally that of Ptolemy (Egypt) toward the south.

(Note: When, on the other hand, Hitzig seeks to explain the prophetic representation, here as well as at Daniel 11:4, that with or immediately after the death of Alexander his kingdom was divided, by reference to 1 Macc. 1:6, according to which Alexander himself, shortly before his death, divided the kingdom among his generals, he thereby not only misapprehends the ideal character of the prophecy, but does not in the least degree clear up the matter itself. For the passage in 1 Macc. 1:6, which not only Arabic and Persian authors repeat, but also Moses v. Chroene, and even later Greek and Latin historiographers, as Ammian Marcell., has been explained by Curtius (x. 10. 5) as a fama vana, and is proved by Wernsdorf (de Fide Librr. Macc. p. 40 f) and Droysen (das Test. Alex. 3te Beilage, zu Gesch. des Hellen. i.) to be without foundation (cf. Grimm, K. ex. Hdb. zu 1 Macc. 1:6). This may have been originally put into circulation by the partisans of the Hellenic kings, in order to legitimatize their sovereignty in the eyes of the people, as Grimm conjectures; yet the confirmation which the book of Daniel appears to give to it contributed to its wide diffusion by Oriental and Byzantine authors, and the author of the first book of the Maccabees had without doubt the book of Daniel before his eyes in the representation he gives.)