Charles Ellicott Commentary Daniel 8:9

"And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the glorious [land]." — Daniel 8:9 (ASV)

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

The pleasant land — i.e., Palestine, which here, as in Isaiah 19:23-24, is spoken of as a third land, between south and east. The phrase, “pleasant land,” or “glorious land,” which recurs in Daniel 11:16-41, was suggested to Daniel by the language of Jeremiah 3:19; Ezekiel 20:6; Ezekiel 20:15.