Daniel 8:17
So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision. So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.
The vision belongs to the wonderful prophecies of Daniel chapters seven to twelve, giving revelations of the mysteries of ages to come. It shall be at the time of the end, the closing period of this world's history, and its light was given especially for the last days. Even Daniel himself did not fully understand all that was revealed in it, for the words were to be shut up and sealed until the time of the end.
Its symbols were explained but its time period remained unclear, so the angel's instruction to understand was only a partial explanation with the starting point of the 2,300 days left unexplained. Daniel misunderstood the 2,300 days as ending with Israel's seventy years of captivity, so he prayed for Jerusalem and the ruined sanctuary. The vision of persecution overwhelmed him, and the angel left him for a time without resolving the time period. Gabriel later returned to give him understanding of the vision's unresolved time period.
The prophetic periods of Daniel 8 and 9 are reckoned from 457 B.C. The vision's little horn is Rome, not Antiochus Epiphanes, with the prophecy's specifications applied to historical facts about Rome. The visions associated with the Ulai and the Hiddekel are now being fulfilled, and their foretold events will soon come to pass. Before his life work closed Daniel was given the assurance that at the end of the days he would rest and then stand again in his lot and place.