[556] Ben-Adam (Ezek. ii. 1).
[557] Comp. Isa. xiv. 9: "All the great goats of the earth." A ram is a natural symbol for a chieftain.--Hom., _Il._, xiii. 491-493; Cic., _De Div._, i. 22; Plut., _Sulla_, c. 27; Jer. l. 8; Ezek. xxxiv. 17; Zech. x. 3, etc. See Vaux, _Persia_, p. 72.
[558] "Strength of face" (LXX., ἀναιδὴς προσώπῳ; Deut. xxviii. 50, etc.). "Understanding dark sentences" (Judg. xiv. 12; Ezek. xvii. 2: comp. v. 12).
[559] The meaning is uncertain. It may mean (1) that he is only strong by God's permission; or (2) only by cunning, not by strength.
[560] Comp. 2 Macc. iv. 9-15: "The priests had no courage to serve any more at the altar, but despising the Temple, and neglecting the sacrifices, hastened to be partakers of the unlawful allowance in the place of exercise ... not setting by the honours of their fathers, but liking the glory of the Grecians best of all."
[561] Not merely the angelic prince of the host (Josh. v. 14), but God--"Lord of lords."
[562] Comp. Esther i. 2. Though the vision took place under Babylon, the seer is strangely unconcerned with the present, or with the fate of the Babylonian Empire.
[563] It is said to be the national emblem of Macedonia.
[564] He is called "the King of Javan"--_i.e._, of the Ionians.
[565] Isa. v. 26-29. Comp. 1 Macc. i. 3.
[566] The _fury_ of the he-goat represents the vengeance cherished by the Greeks against Persia since the old days of Marathon, Thermopylæ, Salamis, Platæa, and Mycale. Persia had invaded Greece under Mardonius (B.C. 492), under Datis and Artaphernes (B.C. 490), and under Xerxes (B.C. 480).
[567] 1 Macc. vi. 1-16; 2 Macc. ix. 9; Job vii. 6; Prov. xxvi. 20.
[568] So Diodorus Siculus (Exc. Vales., p. 293); Justin, xxxii. 2; Jer. _in Dan._, xi.; Strabo, xvi. 744.
[569] Aurel. Vict., _De Virr. Illustr._, c. liv.
[570] He conquered Egypt B.C. 170 (1 Macc. i. 17-20).
[571] See 1 Macc. iii. 29-37.
[572] Comp. Ezek. xx. 6, "which is the glory of all lands"; Psalm l. 2; Lam. ii. 15.
[573] 1 Macc. i. 24-30. Dr. Pusey endeavours, without even the smallest success, to show that many things said of Antiochus in this book do not apply to him. The argument is based on the fact that the characteristics of Antiochus--who was a man of versatile impulses--are somewhat differently described by different authors; but here we have the aspect he presented to a few who regarded him as the deadliest of tyrants and persecutors.
[574] See Hamburger, ii. 334 (_s.v._ "Haftara").
[575] Comp. ὀργὴ μεγάλη (1 Macc. i. 64; Isa. x. 5, 25, xxvi. 20; Jer. l. 5; Rom. ii. 5, etc.).
[576] Comp. xi. 21.
[577] Comp. ii. 34, xi. 45. Antiochus died of a long and terrible illness in Persia. Polybius (xxxi. 11) describes his sickness by the word δαιμονήσας. Arrian (_Syriaca_, 66) says φθίνων ἐτελεύτησε. In 1 Macc. vi. 8-16 he dies confessing his sins against the Jews, but there is another story in 2 Macc. ix. 4-28.
[578] Ver. 27, "I was gone" (or, "came to an end") "whole days." With this ἔκστασις comp. ii. 1, vii. 28; Exod. xxxiii. 20; Isa. vi. 5; Luke ix. 32; Acts ix. 4, etc. Comp. xii. 8; Jer. xxxii. 14, and (_contra_) Rev. xxii. 10.
[579] In ver. 26 the R.V. renders "it belongeth to many days _to come_."
[580] Comp. Gen. i. 5; 2 Cor. xi. 25. The word _tamîd_ includes both the morning and evening sacrifice (Exod. xxix. 41). Pusey says (p. 220), "The shift of halving the days is one of those monsters which have disgraced scientific expositions 'of Hebrew.'" Yet this is the view of such scholars as Ewald, Hitzig, Kuenen, Cornill, Behrmann. The latter quotes a parallel: "vgl. im Hildebrandsliede _sumaro ente wintro_ sehstie = 30 Jahr."