Daniel 8:1 Commentary and Bible Study

At this point the book returns from Aramaic to Hebrew last used in the first half of chapter 2 verse 4. The year is 548 BC. This next vision comes two years after the vision recorded in chapter 7. Babylon was to fall in 539 BC, so there are about ten years of Belshazzar’s co-regency with his father left. Belshazzar’s reign will end on that great last night which we have already encountered in Daniel chapter 5. Really there is little point in this vision containing much reference to the Babylonian Empire; it is already assigned to destruction and the relevant details of its history have already been studied in the book. The Lord will now show Daniel things that will come to pass before the coming of Messiah, before the fulfilling of the great promises that Messiah will come, so at this point he is only going to be told about those empires that remain, the middle empires at any rate. Many of the events foretold in these visions will take place after Daniel has passed from the scene, and they are given for the sake of the godly remnant who will live through those difficult times. They will need hope and a certainty that God’s plan for the nation is still on track in spite of the tumultuous upheaval of world empires. In the vision Daniel is transported to Shushan, or Susa, the future summer capital of the Medo Persian Empire. He is there in the fortified palace or citadel or castle in Susa – there is still debate about how it should be translated: the castle or the palace – but he is only there in the vision. Of course he is in the service in the Babylonian Empire, and Shushan the palace is in Persia, and Persia is an enemy of the Babylonians, so there's no way that Daniel would have been there. But in any case the palace probably wasn't built at the time this vision was given. It would in due course be the summer capital of the Median-Persian Empire. And so it is quite remarkable that the vision not only speaks of future things, but it actually places Daniel in a place that probably wasn't built at the time of the giving of the vision. He is taken there to show that the future Median empire is certain to come, and he is seeing from the perspective of that coming empire.‘I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai’, which may be the great canal which had been dug very, very wide, which ran right past that fortress palace that was to be built by the Persian-Median Empire.