Daniel 10 Study Notes

10:7 The Hebrew for only I, Daniel, saw the vision is emphatic: “I saw, I, Daniel, I alone.” His companions sensed a powerful and terrifying presence but saw nothing, so they ran and hid (cp. Ac 9:7).

10:8-11 In v. 11 the phrase treasured by God is used; that also occurs in 9:23.

10:12-13 The Persian prince had to be supernatural to oppose this angel, and he had to be evil to oppose God’s purposes. Therefore, we conclude that he was a demonic spirit seeking to influence the political affairs of Persia and oppose God’s purposes. Other Scriptures also teach that there are unseen spiritual forces influencing principalities and world powers (Ezk 28:11-19; 2Co 10:3-4; Eph 6:12). The unnamed angel was able to prevail over the demon associated with Persia only because the angel Michael . . . came to help him. Michael (whose name means “who is like God”) is the guardian angel of Israel (cp. v. 21; 12:1; Rv 12:7), and he is designated an archangel in the NT (Jd 9).

10:14 The angel revealed that the first purpose of the vision was to reveal what would happen to Israel in the last days.

10:15-19 The angel not only came to reveal the future but to strengthen Daniel, first by his touch (v. 18) and secondly with his words of encouragement (v. 19).

10:20-21 The prince of Greece is an allusion to the prediction that Greece would follow Persia as the next major world power (8:4-8,20-22). The angel’s final purpose was to reveal what is recorded in the book of truth (lit “the writings of truth”), a reference not to a particular earthly book but to God’s heavenly decrees about the future of all nations.