Daniel — Chapter 8

A male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, not touching the ground: Lapide identifies the goat as Alexander the Great and the speed of his conquest ('not touching the ground') as the extraordinary rapidity of his military campaigns, which Josephus and Arrian record. He uses Alexander's career as evidence of divine Providence arranging history for the Gospel.

The little horn grows toward the south, the east, and the glorious land: Lapide gives detailed historical identification of Antiochus Epiphanes's campaigns, drawing on 1 and 2 Maccabees and Josephus. He also develops the typical sense — Antiochus as a type of Antichrist, each detail of the historical fulfillment guaranteeing the eschatological one.

After 2,300 evenings and mornings the sanctuary will be restored: Lapide gives an extended chronological analysis of this period, correlating it with the historical timeline from Antiochus's initial aggression to Judas Maccabaeus's rededication of the Temple. He uses it as evidence for the precise predictive accuracy of biblical prophecy.

And by no human hand, he shall be broken: the 'little horn' (Antiochus/Antichrist) is broken not by human power but by God alone. Lapide reads this as a warning against millenarian activism — the final defeat of evil is God's work, accomplished through supernatural means, not through political or military human agency. He cites 2 Thess. 2:8 ('the Lord will kill him with the breath of his mouth').