Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. 10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. 11 It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host; it took away the daily sacrifice from him, and the place of his sanctuary was brought low. 12 Because of rebellion, the host of the saints and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.
A horn sprouting from a horn is something that could happen only in a dream or a vision. With this strange development, God pointed to a famous king who would rise from one of the four remnants of Alexander’s Greek Empire. Here we are introduced to the main issue of chapter 8. It is for the sake of this section that the entire chapter was written.
The horn Daniel saw in his vision is again a king. As early as the time of Christ, this little horn was identified with a wicked king named Antiochus Epiphanes, who ruled during the years 175–164 B.C. He was the eighth king after Seleucus, the general who had inherited the Syrian-Palestinian segment of Alexander’s empire. Intrigue and bloodshed were the route by which Antiochus became king.
The little horn symbolizing King Antiochus started small, but Daniel saw it grow and become strong, growing in power “to the south and to the east.” Antiochus waged war against Egypt and in the direction of Persia and Media. But he gave special attention to “the Beautiful Land,” a term for Palestine, the land on which God had bestowed so many special blessings. It was this land which bore the full brunt of the wicked king’s attacks.
Daniel saw this horn raise itself against the stars of heaven, cast some of them to the earth, and trample on them. Later in the chapter, the angel Gabriel explained that the stars represented God’s people. Antiochus unleashed his anger against the Jewish believers. The first and second books of Maccabees, found in the Apocrypha, spell out details of the atrocities Antiochus perpetrated after he came to power. After a victorious campaign in Egypt, he came to the temple in Jerusalem, plundered it, and initiated a bloody persecution of the Jews. History records that he killed more than 100,000.
The height of his wicked pride was reached when he set himself up “to be as great as the Prince of the host.” The Prince of the host is God himself, and the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes was nothing short of continuous rebellion against God and his good will for his people. For one thing, he took away the daily sacrifice from the temple in Jerusalem. At the beginning of each day’s worship, and at the close, a sacrifice was offered called “the burnt offering.” The primary purpose of this offering was to express the covenant relationship Israel had with God. With its daily burnt offerings, the nation of Israel was publicly announcing, “Lord God, you are our God; we are your people!” Antiochus put a stop to this, robbing God of honor due him.
The first book of Maccabees provides vivid details of how through the evil activity of Antiochus Epiphanes, “the place of his [God’s] sanctuary was brought low”:
"The king sent letters by messenger to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah . . . to follow foreign customs . . . to keep offerings out of the sanctuary to profane Sabbaths . . . to pollute the sanctuary and priests . . . to build idol temples, and to sacrifice swine’s flesh . . . that they should leave their sons uncircumcised . . . so that they might forget [God’s] law "(1 Maccabees 1:44-49).
Antiochus Epiphanes thoroughly disrupted the worship life God had prescribed for his Old Testament people. He plundered the temple in Jerusalem and desolated it. He abolished all sacrifices and festivals and even erected an altar to Jupiter, chief of the Greek gods, in place of the altar of God. He burned the books containing the law of Moses, trying to make it impossible for God’s people to hear the message of God’s love for them and of his plans for them.
And the result? Daniel saw it in his vision: “Truth was thrown to the ground.” God’s truth, the truth God had miraculously given to ancient Israel, was forcibly taken from them.
It was painful for Daniel to see this in a vision. But imagine how painful it was for God’s people four centuries later to experience this in real life! As Antiochus continued his arrogant and blasphemous tyranny over their worship, they must have wondered, “Why does a loving God permit such a nightmare of persecution and suffering to come upon us?” Yet that’s exactly what happened. In Daniel’s vision of the little horn, the host of saints was given into its power. “It prospered in everything it did.” How long would God let a situation like this continue?
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host that will be trampled underfoot?”
14 He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated.”
Although God’s people could not know the details, God had determined how long the period of persecution would last. Angels pointed this out to Daniel in his vision, in language which is mysterious and which presents a problem to Bible interpreters.
In the vision we hear angels speak. These loyal servants of God asked for more information on the terrible trial ahead for God’s people. “How long? How long will the suffering of God’s saints and the humiliation of God’s sanctuary last?”
The reply is directed to Daniel: “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated.”
The question “How are we to understand this period of time?” is one of the major problems facing the reader of the book of Daniel. Many have taken the expression literally, seeing in the 2,300 evenings and mornings a period of about 61/3 years. According to this interpretation, this time period represents the time from the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes to the time when the temple was cleansed and rededicated.
Other Bible scholars have called attention to the fact that numbers occurring in visions usually are not exact mathematical calculations but are symbolic. H. C. Leupold holds this view: “Since seven is the mark of a divine work, this period would have been characterized as a divine period of judgment. As it now stands, this number signifies not even a full period of divine judgment” (Exposition of Daniel, page 357).
According to this interpretation, the angel’s message about a 2,300-day period of suffering was to reassure the people of God. Although they would be persecuted, it would last only for a limited time. When God’s good time came, the sanctuary in Jerusalem would be cleansed from its defilement and would be reconsecrated.