Daniel 8:9

Little. — Literally, out of littleness. (Comp. Daniel 7:8.) This is explained more fully in Daniel 8:23. The southern campaigns of Antiochus Epiphanes are related 1Ma. 1:16; for his eastern wars see 1Ma. 3:31-37; 1Ma. 6:1-4.

The pleasant land — i.e., Palestine, which here, as in Isaiah 19:23, is spoken of as a third land, between south and east. The phrase, “pleasant land,” or “glorious land,” which recurs Daniel 11:16, was suggested to Daniel by the language of Jeremiah 3:19; Ezekiel 20:6; Ezekiel 20:15.