Daniel 8:3

3 Looking around, I was surprised to see a ram also standing at the gate. The ram had two huge horns, one bigger than the other, but the bigger horn was the last to appear.

Daniel 8:3 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 8:3

Then I lifted up mine eyes
To see what was to be seen in this place, where he in the vision was brought; he lifted up the eyes of his understanding, being enlightened by the vision of prophecy, and the eyes of his body, to which objects of corporeal things formed in the fancy were represented: and saw, and, behold;
he saw something wonderful in a visionary way, and which struck his mind, and raised his attention: there stood before the river;
the river Ulai, near Shushan, the palace, the seat of the kings of Persia, to the east: a ram, which had two horns;
a symbol of the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, signified by the two horns, ( Daniel 8:20 ) , an emblem of power and dominion, and sometimes used to signify kings and kingdoms; see ( Daniel 7:24 ) and these as united in one monarchy, under one monarch, Cyrus, and continued in his successors unto the times of Alexander; and therefore called "a ram", or "one ram" ^F13, as in the original; and which in sound has some likeness to Elam or Persia: and this kingdom or monarchy may be signified by it, partly because of its strength and power, and partly because of its riches, as some think, as well as because it is a fighting creature; and it may be chiefly because this monarchy was mild, and kind, and gentle to the Jewish nation: and it is very remarkable, that, according to Ammianus Marcellinus ^F14, the ram was the royal ensign of the Persians; whose kings used to wear for a diadem something made of gold, in the shape of a ram's head, set with little stones: and the two horns were high;
grew straight up on high, and so were different from the usual horns of a ram, which are crooked; denoting the great power, authority, wealth, and riches, these two kingdoms rose up unto: but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last;
I think the words might be rendered better, "and the first was higher than the second, but it ascended, or grew up, higher at last" ^F15; the kingdom of the Medes was the first kingdom, and it was at first superior to the kingdom of Persia; but afterwards the kingdom of Persia became greater than that, under Cyrus and his successors: and Sir John Chardin says {p}, that rams' heads, with horns one higher than another, are still to be seen in the ruins of Persepolis.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F13 (dxa lya) "aries unus", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus
F14 Hist. l. 19.
F15 (hnwrxab hle hhbghw tynvh Nm hxbg txahw) .
F16 Travels, vol. 3.

Daniel 8:3 In-Context

1 "In King Belshazzar's third year as king, another vision came to me, Daniel. This was now the second vision.

2 "In the vision, I saw myself in Susa, the capital city of the province Elam, standing at the Ulai Canal.

3 Looking around, I was surprised to see a ram also standing at the gate. The ram had two huge horns, one bigger than the other, but the bigger horn was the last to appear.

4 I watched as the ram charged: first west, then north, then south. No beast could stand up to him. He did just as he pleased, strutting as if he were king of the beasts.

5 "While I was watching this, wondering what it all meant, I saw a billy goat with an immense horn in the middle of its forehead come up out of the west and fly across the whole country, not once touching the ground.