The third year of Belshazzar’s reign was 550 BC. Daniel’s official place of residence at this time was in Susa. Susa was the winter residence of the Persian kings and became the home city for Esther and Nehemiah. Daniel had gone out to the Ulai Canal, possibly to worship since Jews (like Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1:1 and Paul in Philippi in Acts 16:13) sought a place with running water for their ritual cleansing used during times of worship and prayer. The Ulai Canal flowed on the northeast side of Susa and, though it is dry today, it was flowing with water and about 900 feet wide in Daniel’s time.

While Daniel was praying by the canal outside Susa he had a vision of a ram with two horns. The ram came from the east and conquered towards the west, north and south. This would seem to represent to Daniel the present Persian power held by the emperor Cyrus the Great and his co-regent Darius, the king of Babylon. No one in 550 BC could stand against the Persian Empire.

But, Daniel also saw something coming from the west. A single goat with one prominent horn seemed to be flying from a distant western land towards the Persian power. This goat would crush the two horned ram representing the Persian Empire. Daniel seems to be identifying the rise of Greece and its unstoppable general and king, Alexander the Great, 219 years before Alexander would achieve the supremacy of this goat. This vision would become historical reality in 331 BC when Alexander’s forces crushed the fleeing Persian troops and burned Persepolis.

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