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Daniel 8:8-10
New English Translation
Daniel 8:8-10
New English Translation
8 The male goat acted even more arrogantly. But no sooner had the large horn become strong than it was broken, and there arose four conspicuous horns[a] in its place,[b] extending toward the four winds of the sky.[c]
9 From one of them came a small horn,[d] but it grew to be very great toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land.[e] 10 It grew so great it reached the army[f] of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars[g] to the ground, where it trampled them.
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- Daniel 8:8 tn The word “horns” is not in the Hebrew text but is implied.
- Daniel 8:8 sn The four conspicuous horns refer to Alexander’s successors. After his death, Alexander’s empire was divided up among four of his generals: Cassander, who took Macedonia and Greece; Lysimachus, who took Thrace and parts of Asia Minor; Seleucus, who took Syria and territory to its east; and Ptolemy, who took control of Egypt.
- Daniel 8:8 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
- Daniel 8:9 sn This small horn is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who controlled the Seleucid kingdom from ca. 175-164 b.c. Antiochus was extremely hostile toward the Jews and persecuted them mercilessly.
- Daniel 8:9 sn The expression the beautiful land (Heb. הַצֶּבִי [hatsevi] = “the beauty”) is a cryptic reference to the land of Israel. Cf. 11:16, 41, where it is preceded by the word אֶרֶץ (ʾerets, “land”).
- Daniel 8:10 tn Traditionally, “host.” The term refers to God’s heavenly angelic assembly, which he sometimes leads into battle as an army.
- Daniel 8:10 sn In prescientific Israelite thinking the stars were associated with the angelic members of God’s heavenly assembly. See Judg 5:20; Job 38:7; Isa 40:26. In west Semitic mythology the stars were members of the high god’s divine assembly (see Isa 14:13).
New English Translation (NET)
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