English
And the ten horns you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they will receive authority like kings for one hour with the wild animal. These will have one purpose, and they will give their power and authority to the wild animal. These will wage war with the lamb, and the lamb will conquer them because he is lord of lords and king of kings, and those with him are called chosen and faithful.’
Interpretation
In the book’s continuing midrash on Daniel, the author retains the ten horns/kings, but diminishes their importance. In this book’s reimagining of Daniel, the world empire portrayed in the monster is no longer the Greek hegemony over Israel, but the Roman Empire. Originally, the ten horns stood in for the Greek rulers. The addition of the seven heads to represent the Roman emperors has led to the author diminishing the importance of the ten horns, now having them represent the client kings of the empire. This shows that all world powers have allied against the Anointed One, without bothering about specific referents behind each horn. The eleventh horn from Daniel, originally conveying Antiochus Epiphanes, has been adjusted to become the eighth king, most likely Domitian as Nero Redux.
Parallels
Psalms
2.2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yhwh and his Anointed One
Deuteronomy
10.17 ‘For Yhwh, your god, is god of gods and lord of lords’
Ezekiel
26.7 For thus says the Lord Yhwh: I will bring against Tyre from the north King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, king of kings
Ezra
7.12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, to the priest Ezra, the scribe of the law of the god of heaven: Peace.
1 Enoch
9.4 And approaching, they said to the lord of the ages, ‘You are the god of gods and lord of lords and king of kings and god of the ages’
Daniel
2.37 ‘You, O king, the king of kings—to whom the god of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the might, and the glory’
4 Ezra
12.19–20 ‘As for your seeing eight little wings clinging to its wings, this is the interpretation: Eight kings shall arise in it, whose times shall be short and their years swift’
13.5, 9, 11, 12 After this I looked and saw that an innumerable multitude of people were gathered together from the four winds of heaven to make war against the man who came up from the sea. […] When he saw the onrush of the approaching multitude […] the stream of fire and the flaming breath and the great storm […] burned up all of them […] After this I saw the same man come down from the mountain and call to himself another multitude that was peaceable.
13.32–34 ‘When these things take place and the signs occur that I showed you before, then my son will be revealed, whom you saw as a man coming up from the sea. Then, when all the nations hear his voice, all the nations shall leave their own lands and the warfare that they have against one another; and an innumerable multitude shall be gathered together, as you saw, wishing to come and conquer him.’