Then I lifted up mine eyes
To behold another vision which follows: and saw, and behold
four horns;
either iron ones, such as Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made to
push the Syrians with, ( 1 Kings
22:11 ) or horns of beasts, as the horns of unicorns, to
which the horns of Joseph are compared, ( Deuteronomy
33:17 ) and signify kingdoms or kings, and these very
powerful and mighty; and so the Targum interprets them of "four
kingdoms"; and which Kimchi and Abarbinel understand of the four
monarchies, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; so ten
horns, in ( Daniel 7:24 ) (
Revelation 17:12 )
design ten kings or kingdoms; unless rather, seeing these horns
were such who had already distressed and scattered Judah, Israel,
and Jerusalem; and two of the above monarchies were not yet in
being, the Grecian and Roman, when this vision was seen; and one
of those that were, were friends to the Jews, as the Persians;
they may in general signify all the enemies of the Jews that were
round about them, on the four corners of them; as the Syrians,
Assyrians, and Babylonians, on the north; the Ammonites and
Moabites on the east; the Edomites and Egyptians on the south;
and the Philistines on the west; as Junius thinks. Cocceius
interprets them of four kings, Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar,
Xerxes, and Artaxerxes the first, called Longimanus; and may be
applied to the antichristian states, Pagan and Papal, in the
various parts of the world, called horns, ( Daniel 7:24 ) (
Revelation 12:3 ) (
13:1 ) .