The angel declares to Daniel many things to come, with regard to the
Persian and Grecian kings: more especially with regard to Antiochus as
a figure of Antichrist.
11:1. And from the first year of Darius, the Mede, I stood up, that he
might be strengthened, and confirmed.
11:2. And now I will shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand yet
three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be enriched exceedingly
above them all: and when he shall be grown mighty by his riches, he
shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece.
Three kings.... Viz., Cambyses, Smerdes Magus, and Darius, the son of
Hystaspes.—Ibid. The fourth.... Xerxes.
11:3. But there shall rise up a strong king, and shall rule with great
power: and he shall do what he pleaseth.
A strong king.... Alexander.
11:4. And when he shall come to his height, his kingdom shall be
broken, and it shall be divided towards the four winds of the heaven:
but not to his posterity, nor according to his power with which he
ruled. For his kingdom shall be rent in pieces, even for strangers,
besides these.
11:5. And the king of the south shall be strengthened, and one of his
princes shall prevail over him, and he shall rule with great power: for
his dominion shall be great.
The king of the south.... Ptolemeus the son of Lagus, king of Egypt,
which lies south of Jerusalem.—Ibid. One of his princes.... that is,
one of Alexander’s princes, shall prevail over him: that is, shall be
stronger than the king of Egypt. He speaks of Seleucus Nicator, king of
Asia and Syria, whose successors are here called the kings of the
north, because their dominions lay to the north in respect to
Jerusalem.
11:6. And after the end of years they shall be in league together: and
the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the
north to make friendship, but she shall not obtain the strength of the
arm, neither shall her seed stand: and she shall be given up, and her
young men that brought her, and they that strengthened her in these
times.
The daughter of the king of the south.... Viz., Berenice, daughter of
Ptolemeus Philadelphus, given in marriage to Antiochus Theos, grandson
of Seleucus.
11:7. And a plant of the bud of her roots shall stand up: and he shall
come with an army, and shall enter into the province of the king of the
north: and he shall abuse them, and shall prevail.
A plant, etc.... Ptolemeus Evergetes, the son of Philadelphus.
11:8. And he shall also carry away captive into Egypt their gods, and
their graven things, and their precious vessels of gold and silver: he
shall prevail against the king of the north.
The king of the north.... Seleucus Callinicus.
11:9. And the king of the south shall enter into the kingdom, and shall
return to his own land.
11:10. And his sons shall be provoked, and they shall assemble a
multitude of great forces: and he shall come with haste like a flood:
and he shall return, and be stirred up, and he shall join battle with
his force.
His sons.... Seleucus Ceraunius, and Antiochus the Great, the sons of
Callinicus.—Ibid. He shall come.... Viz., Antiochus the Great.
11:11. And the king of the south being provoked, shall go forth, and
shall fight against the king of the north, and shall prepare an
exceeding great multitude, and a multitude shall be given into his
hand.
The king of the south.... Ptolemeus Philopator, son of Evergetes.
11:12. And he shall take a multitude, and his heart shall be lifted up,
and he shall cast down many thousands: but he shall not prevail.
11:13. For the king of the north shall return, and shall prepare a
multitude much greater than before: and in the end of times, and years,
he shall come in haste with a great army, and much riches.
11:14. And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the
south, and the children of prevaricators of thy people shall lift up
themselves to fulfil the vision, and they shall fall.
11:15. And the king of the north shall come, and shall cast up a mount,
and shall take the best fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall
not withstand, and his chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and they
shall not have strength.
11:16. And he shall come upon him, and do according to his pleasure,
and there shall be none to stand against his face: and he shall stand
in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed by his hand.
He shall come upon him.... Viz., Antiochus shall come upon the king of
the south.—Ibid. The glorious land.... Judea.
11:17. And he shall set his face to come to possess all his kingdom,
and he shall make upright conditions with him: and he shall give him a
daughter of women, to overthrow it: and she shall not stand, neither
shall she be for him.
All his kingdom.... Viz., all the kingdom of Ptolemeus Epiphanes, son
of Philopator.—Ibid. A daughter of women.... That is, a most beautiful
woman, viz., his daughter Cleopatra.—Ibid. To overthrow it.... Viz.,
the kingdom of Epiphanes: but his policy shall not succeed; for
Cleopatra shall take more to heart the interest of her husband, than
that of her father.
11:18. And he shall turn his face to the islands, and shall take many:
and he shall cause the prince of his reproach to cease, and his
reproach shall be turned upon him.
The prince of his reproach.... Seipio the Roman general, called the
prince of his reproach, because he overthrew Antiochus, and obliged him
to submit to very dishonourable terms, before he would cease from the
war.
11:19. And he shall turn his face to the empire of his own land, and he
shall stumble, and fall, and shall not be found.
11:20. And there shall stand up in his place one most vile, and
unworthy of kingly honour: and in a few days he shall be destroyed, not
in rage nor in battle.
One most vile.... Seleucus Philopator, who sent Heliodorus to plunder
the temple: and was shortly after slain by the same Heliodorus.
11:21. And there shall stand up in his place one despised, and the
kingly honour shall not be given him: and he shall come privately, and
shall obtain the kingdom by fraud.
One despised.... Viz., Antiochus Epiphanes, who at first was despised
and not received for king. What is here said of this prince, is
accommodated by St. Jerome and others to Antichrist; of whom this
Antiochus was a figure.
11:22. And the arms of the fighter shall be overcome before his face,
and shall be broken: yea, also the prince of the covenant.
Of the fighter.... That is, of them that shall oppose him, and shall
fight against him.—Ibid. The prince of the covenant.... or, of the
league. The chief of them that conspired against him: or the king of
Egypt his most powerful adversary.
11:23. And after friendships, he will deal deceitfully with him: and he
shall go up, and shall overcome with a small people.
11:24. And he shall enter into rich and plentiful cities: and he shall
do that which his fathers never did, nor his fathers’ fathers: he shall
scatter their spoils, and their prey, and their riches, and shall
forecast devices against the best fenced places: and this until a time.
11:25. And his strength, and his heart, shall be stirred up against the
king of the south, with a great army: and the king of the south shall
be stirred up to battle with many and very strong succours: and they
shall not stand, for they shall form designs against him.
The king.... Ptolemeus Philometor.
11:26. And they that eat bread with him, shall destroy him, and his
army shall be overthrown: and many shall fall down slain.
11:27. And the heart of the two kings shall be to do evil, and they
shall speak lies at one table, and they shall not prosper: because as
yet the end is unto another time.
11:28. And he shall return into his land with much riches: and his
heart shall be against the holy covenant, and he shall succeed, and
shall return into his own land.
11:29. At the time appointed he shall return, and he shall come to the
south, but the latter time shall not be like the former.
11:30. And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall
be struck, and shall return, and shall have indignation against the
covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall return,
and shall devise against them that have forsaken the covenant of the
sanctuary.
The galleys and the Romans.... Popilius, and the other Roman
ambassadors, who came in galleys, and obliged him to depart from Egypt.
11:31. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the
sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice: and
they shall place there the abomination unto desolation.
They shall place there the abomination, etc.... The idol of Jupiter
Olympius, which Antiochus ordered to be set up in the sanctuary of the
temple: which is here called the sanctuary of strength, from the
Almighty that was worshipped there.
11:32. And such as deal wickedly against the covenant shall deceitfully
dissemble: but the people that know their God shall prevail and
succeed.
11:33. And they that are learned among the people shall teach many: and
they shall fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by
spoil for many days.
11:34. And when they shall have fallen, they shall be relieved with a
small help: and many shall be joined to them deceitfully.
11:35. And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and
may be chosen, and made white, even to the appointed time: because yet
there shall be another time.
11:36. And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be
lifted up, and shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall
speak great things against the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the
wrath be accomplished. For the determination is made.
11:37. And he shall make no account of the God of his fathers: and he
shall follow the lust of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for
he shall rise up against all things.
11:38. But he shall worship the god Maozim, in his place: and a god
whom his fathers knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and
precious stones, and things of great price.
The god Maozim.... That is, the god of forces or strong holds.
11:39. And he shall do this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom
he hath acknowledged, and he shall increase glory, and shall give them
power over many, and shall divide the land gratis.
And he shall increase glory, etc.... He shall bestow honours, riches
and lands, upon them that shall worship his god.
11:40. And at the time prefixed the king of the south shall fight
against him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a
tempest, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with a great navy, and
he shall enter into the countries, and shall destroy, and pass through.
11:41. And he shall enter into the glorious land, and many shall fall:
and these only shall be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the
principality of the children of Ammon.
11:42. And he shall lay his hand upon the lands: and the land of Egypt
shall not escape.
11:43. And he shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of
silver, and all the precious things of Egypt: and he shall pass through
Lybia, and Ethiopia.
11:44. And tidings out of the east, and out of the north, shall trouble
him: and he shall come with a great multitude to destroy and slay many.
11:45. And he shall fix his tabernacle, Apadno, between the seas, upon
a glorious and holy mountain: and he shall come even to the top
thereof, and none shall help him.
Apadno.... Some take it for the proper name of a place: others, from
the Hebrew, translate it his palace.