Daniel 8:11-12

11, 12. The R.V. translates these difficult verses: “Yea, it magnified itself, even to the prince of the host; and it took away from him the continual burnt offering, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And the host was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through transgression; and it cast down truth to the ground, and it did its pleasure and prospered.” It is absolutely impossible to reach certainty in regard to some of these words and phrases; but it seems clear that the “prince of the host” is either the “Ancient of days” (Daniel 7:9; Daniel 8:25), or else the Son of man to whom he gave the kingdom (Daniel 7:13). It was because of the “transgression” of the Jewish people that the host of holy ones (Daniel 8:10), and even the holy temple itself, was given into the power of this great transgressor, Antiochus Epiphanes. (See note Daniel 8:9; compare Job 1:12.) “Any such triumph of a heathen power over the representatives of the true religion is a casting down of the truth to the ground.” Terry.