Big Idea: God reveals with measured detail a future that includes suffering for his people, but he assures them that he will triumph over the forces of evil.

Understanding the Text

See the unit on 8:1–14 for a discussion of the larger context, structure, and comparisons of this chapter. Against this backdrop, 8:15–27 begins and ends with the resumptive “I, Daniel” and another reference to the Ulai Canal (8:16). The explicit mention of the Medes, the Persians, and the Greeks in the interpretation—with an emphasis on the last—recalls the explicit identification of, and emphasis on, Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon in chapter 2. Also, the extended focus on the Greeks is consistent with this chapter’s parallel in Daniel 10–12, as well as with the similar emphasis on the last kingdom in chapters 2 an…