Gabriel Interprets and Orders the Vision Sealed

Gabriel names Media-Persia and Greece, then a fierce later king

When Daniel seeks for the meaning, a man's appearance stands before him, and a voice between the banks of Ulai calls, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. Gabriel says the vision belongs to the time of the end, and Daniel falls on his face in terror and is set upright.

The ram's two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. The rough goat is the king of Grecia; the great horn is the first king. The four that stand up are four kingdoms from his nation, but not in his power. In the latter time of their kingdom, when transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. He shall destroy wonderfully, prosper, destroy the mighty and the holy people, cause craft to prosper, magnify himself, and by peace destroy many. He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, yet he shall be broken without hand.

Seal the vision; do not decode a living horn

The named empires constrain guesswork. A fierce king who attacks the holy people and is broken without human hand has a strong Antiochus IV horizon. Some readers hear a further horizon; that extension must be labeled and cannot name a required modern ruler.

Gabriel says the vision of the evenings and mornings is true, and Daniel is to shut it up because it shall be for many days. Sealing here is not a wink to later insiders with a private key. It tells Daniel the disclosure is for a later crisis, not for instant mastery.