Daniel 8:12 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression Antiochus prospered so far in his attempts against the Jews and their religion, that he built a citadel in the city of David, and placed a garrison of soldiers there, to disturb those that should come to worship God at the temple: see 1Ma 1:33-36. This God permitted, as a just punishment for the sins of the people, and particularly of those who professed a willingness to forsake the worship of God, and to join with the heathen in their idolatry, Malachi 1:11; Malachi 1:11; 2Ma 4:13-17. Some translate the words, And a set time was appointed against the daily sacrifice; for the word צבא, rendered host, signifies likewise a set time: see Daniel 10:1. And it cast down the truth to the ground, and prospered The book of the law, or the divine ordinances delivered to the Jews by Moses, is here called the truth. He prospered so far in his attempts against the true religion, as to suppress it for a time, and hinder the open profession of it: see Daniel 8:24, and Daniel 11:28-32. We read, 1Ma 1:56, that Antiochus ordered the copies of the law to be cut in pieces and burned.