Daniel 8:3

3 I looked up and saw a ram standing beside the river. It had two horns. Both horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one came up second.

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 the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me at first.
2 In the vision I was looking and saw myself in Susa the capital, in the province of Elam, and I was by the river Ulai.
3 I looked up and saw a ram standing beside the river. It had two horns. Both horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one came up second.
4 I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. All beasts were powerless to withstand it, and no one could rescue from its power; it did as it pleased and became strong.
5 As I was watching, a male goat appeared from the west, coming across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground. The goat had a horn between its eyes.

Footnotes 1

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.