The he-goat waxed very great, &c.— This the angel interprets, Daniel 8:22. The empire of the goat was in its full strength when Alexander died. He was succeeded by his natural brother Philip Aridaeus, and by his two sons, Alexander AEgus and Hercules; but in the space of about fifteen years they were all murdered, and the first horn or kingdom was intirely broken. The royal family being thus extinct, the governors of provinces, who had before usurped the power, usurped the title of kings, and by the defeat and death of Antigonus, in the battle of Issus, were reduced to four; Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus, who parted Alexander's dominions between them, and divided and settled them into four kingdoms. These four kingdoms are the four notable horns which came up in the room of the first great horn, and are the same as the four heads of the leopard, ch. 7. Four kingdoms shall stand up,—but not in his power: they were to be kingdoms of Greeks, not of Alexander's own family, but only of his nation: neither were they to be equal to him in power and dominion; as an empire united is certainly more powerful than the same divided, and the whole greater than any of its parts. They were likewise to extend towards the four winds of heaven; and in the partition of the empire Cassander held Macedon and Greece, and the western parts; Lysimachus had Thrace, Bithynia, and the northern regions: Ptolemy possessed Egypt, and the southern countries; and Seleucus obtained Syria, and the eastern provinces. See Bishop Newton, p. 27.
Related Commentaries of Daniel 8:8
Daniel 8:8
8 Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.