He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes— If by the prince of princes, the high-priest be meant, the Romans abolished the whole administration of that priesthood. If the Messiah be meant, it was effected by the Romans. It was indeed by the malice of the Jews, but by the authority of the Romans, that he was put to death; and he suffered the punishment of the Roman malefactors and slaves. And indeed it is very worthy of our consideration, whether this part of the prophesy be not a sketch of the fate and sufferings of the Christian, as well as of the Jewish church. Nothing is more usual with the prophets than to describe the religion and worship of later times, by figures borrowed from their own religion. The Christians may full as well as the Jews be comprehended under the name of holy people, or people of the holy ones. The Romans not only crucified our Saviour, but also persecuted his disciples for above three centuries; and when at length they embraced the Christian religion, they soon corrupted it; so that it may be questioned, whether their favour was not as hurtful to the church as their enmity. As the power of the Roman emperors declines, that of the Roman pontiff increased: and may it not with equal truth and justice be said of the latter, as of the former, that they cast down the truth to the ground? How applicable in this sense is every part of the angel's interpretation, in this and the two former verses! and this farther opens and explains the appellations of the little horn. The persecuting power of Rome, whether exercised towards the Jews, or towards the Christians, by the emperors, or by the popes, is still the little horn. Their tyranny is the same; but as exerted in Greece and the east, it is the little horn of the he-goat, or the third empire; as exerted in Italy and the west, it is the little horn of the fourth beast, or the fourth empire. See Bishop Newton.
He shall be broken without hand— As the stone, in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, was cut out of the mountain without hands; that is to say, not by human but by supernatural means; so the little horn, shall be broken without hand; shall not die the common death; nor fall by the hand of men, but perish by a stroke from heaven. And this agrees perfectly with the former predictions of the fatal catastrophe of the Romans, chap. Daniel 2:34; Daniel 7:11; Daniel 7:26. All which implies, that the dominion of the Romans shall finally be destroyed by some extraordinary manifestation of the divine power. By thus retracing the particulars of this remarkable prophesy, it appears, that though some of them agree very well with Antiochus Epiphanes, yet others can by no means be reconciled to him; but they all agree and correspond exactly with the Romans, and with none else; so that the application of the character to them must be the right application. See Bishop Newton.