Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_300.lzh/6_328.TXT

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my .cogitations much troubled me; when he thought of
the'se powerful monarchies, their strength and cruelty,
and what the people of God would suffer under them,
a'nd.especially .under the fourth beast or !nonarcily,
and inoi'e particularly trader .tile little horn or atlti-
christ: and my countenance changed in me: turned
t,ule :.lie looked sorrowfttt and dejected, because of the
afflictions of God's people; though .the issue of them,
one would have thought, would have inspired him
with joy and pleasure: but .I kept the matter in my heart;
laid it up in his memory; pondered it in his mind;
meal;rated upon it; and well weighed |he several.
things observed to him; that he might be thoroughly
master of them, and make them known tO others, and
leave them in writing tbr the benefit of the church of
God in future ages.

C H A P. VIII.

This chapter contains the vision of a ram and he-
goht, and the interprettttion of it. It begins with ob-
serving'the time unit place of the vision, yet. 1, 2. then
describes the ram .seen; by the place of his situation;
by his two horns; and by his pushing several ways
with: so much t'orce arid fnry, that nonecould stand
before him, or deliver: out of his hands, yet. 3, 4. next
the he-goat appears, and is described by the pay, from
whence lie catne; the swiftness of his motion; the
no,able'horn between his eyes; and his running to
ram in great fury, smiting him between his horns,
casting him to the ground, and trampling upon him,
and none to deliver, ver. 5, 6, 7. but, after waxing
great and powerfnl, its horn was broken, and four more
rose up in its stead, and out of one of them a little
born, vet. 8, 9. which little horn is described by its
power and prevalence to the south and to the east,
towards the pleasant land, the host of heaven, and
the Pr4nce of,he 'host; and by it the stars were cast
d. oWn and trampled upon, -'the' daily sacriliee made to
Cease;' the plhce of the sanctuary cast down, and truth
itself, vet. 9, 10, 11', l2. and upon inquiry it appeared
that these ,sacred things Were to continue in this de-
Viate coridition unto 2300 days, vet. 13, 14. Daniel
being desirous. of knowing the meaning of this vision,
the Angel Gabriel is ordered by Christ to give him an
understanding of.it; 'who drew n.ear t.o him,'and awaked
him oat-'ofihissleep, and gave'him'the interpretation
6rit;.iv~t,. }~,..16, 17;:~i8;: 1'9'.' which is as follows-; the
~tain;;with two" horns, signifies the kings of Media and
Persia; the rough goat, the king of Greece; and the
great horn the first king,. Alexander the great; and
the four horns, four kingdoms which rose up out of
the Grecian empire. upon his den',h, vet. 20, 2l, '2c2.. and
the little horn a king of fierce countenance, Antiochus
Epiphanes; Who is, described by his craft, and cunning,
by his power and might, and by the destruction he
should make; vet. 23, e4, ,25. this vision the angel
sures the prophet was true, 'and' bids him shut it up,
since it was for many days, yet. _06. upon which Daniel
hinted, and was sick for a time; but afterwards reco-
vered, so as to be able to do the king's business; but
astonished at the vision himself, and which was not
understood by others, ver. 27.
Vet. 1. In the third year of the reign of King .Belshaz-
zar,.-&c.]. W'hich some say {} was the last year of his.
reign; but, according to Ptolemy's canon, he reigned
seventeen years; and so savs Josephus"; however, this,
as well as the preceding vision, were seen hetbre what.
happened recorded in the ,/!fth and sixth chapters. The
following vision was seen by 'l)aniel, according to
Bishop Usher" and Dean Prideaux {x} in the year of the
Jnlian period 4161, and before Christ. 553 : Mr. Bed-.
fordr places it in 552; and Mr. Whistcn {z}, very
wrongly, in. 537, two years after the death of Bel-
shazzar. The prophet having, in the preceding chap-
ters, related what concerned the Chaldeans, he wrote
in the Chaldee language; but row, hcnccforward,
writing of things which concerned the Jews more
especially, and the church and people of God. in after-
tines, he writes in the Hebrew tongue. A vision ap-
peared unto me, even to me .l)aniel ; and not another;
which is said for the certainty of it; whether it was
seen by him waking, or in a dream, as the former vision,
is not certain; it seems rather as if he was awake at
first, though he afterwards fe11 prostrate to the ground,
and into a deep sleep; yet the SyriaC version takes it
to be a dream, and so renders the first clause of the
next verse: after that which appeared to me at the first ;
at the beginning of Belshazzar's reign, in the first year
of it, recorded in the preceding chapter; which was
concerning the four monarchies in general, and par-
ticularly concerning the fourth or Roman monarchy,
of which a large account is given; and the Chaldean
monarchy being near at an end, here the two mon-
archies between, namely, the Persian and Grecian, are
in this vision described.
Ver. 2. And I saw in a vision, &c.] The following
things: and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at
Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam;
not in reality, but so it seemed to him in the vision'; as
Ezekiel, when in Babylon, seemed iu the visions of
God to be at Jerusalem, ch. viii. 3. This city Shushan,
or Susa, as it is called by other writers, and,signifies
a lily, was so called from ihe plenty of lilies that grew
about .it, or because of the pleasantness of it; it was
the metropolis of the country'Susiana, which had its
name from it, and was afterwards the royal seat of the
kings of Persia. This was ilrst made so by Cyrus; for
Strabo {a} says, that he and tim Persians having over-
come the Medes, observing that their own co,tarry was
situated in the extreme parts, and Susa more inward,
anti nearer to other nations, beh,g', as he says, between
Persia and Babylon, set his royal palace in it; ap--

{t} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 28. p. 81.
{u} Autiqu. I. 10. c. 11. sect. 4.
{w} Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3451.
{x} Connexion, &c part 1. p. 117.
{y} Scriptm, e Cht't~t,olo~y, p. 7 10.
{z} Chronological Tables, cent. 10.
{a} Geograph. 1. 15. p. 500.