Chapter Eleven

1–2. A brief outline of the history of the kingdom of Persia. 3–20. The Greco-Macedonian kingdom and the mutual struggle of the Syrian and Egyptian monarchies arising from it. 21–45. The activity of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Daniel 11:1. Therefore, from the first year of Darius the Mede I have been his supporter and strengthening force. Daniel 11:2. Now I will tell you the truth: behold, three more kings will arise in Persia; then a fourth will exceed all in great wealth, and when he becomes strong by his wealth, he will stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Since the revelation was given to the prophet in the third year of Cyrus (Dan 10:1), by the three kings that are to arise in Persia are meant three successors of Cyrus: Cambyses (529–522 B.C.), Pseudo-Smerdis (522–521 B.C.), and Darius Hystaspes (521–486 B.C.), and the fourth king, “exceeding all in great wealth,” is the famous Xerxes (486–465 B.C.), renowned indeed for immense wealth and known for his unsuccessful campaign against the Greeks. Continuing the wars begun by Xerxes’s father, Darius Hystaspes, it ended in the complete defeat of the Persians at Salamis.

Daniel 11:3. And a mighty king will arise, who will rule with great power and will do as he pleases. Daniel 11:4. But when he has arisen, his kingdom will be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, and not to his posterity, and not with the power with which he ruled; for his kingdom will be divided and given to others besides these. From the time of the battle of Salamis the Persian kingdom began plainly to decline; Greece becomes the world power. In view of the importance of Xerxes’s campaign, the heavenly being passes over in silence his successors to the throne and moves from the Persian monarchy to the third world kingdom—the Greco-Macedonian—and among its representatives to Alexander of Macedon, for it is only from this time that the Greeks come into contact with the people of God. Concerning Alexander of Macedon and his activity the revelation imparts the same things that were known to the prophet Daniel from the preceding visions (Dan 7:6; Dan 8:5-8). What is new is the indication that after Alexander’s death power will not pass to his descendants but to others. And indeed, Alexander of Macedon left behind him a feeble-minded brother Arrhidaeus and two young children. None of them was capable of governing the vast empire, and it was divided among Alexander’s generals, with each part naturally turning out to be weaker than the whole realm.

Daniel 11:5. And the king of the South will grow strong, and one of his princes will overcome him and rule, and his rule will be great. Daniel 11:6. But after some years they will make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the South will come to the king of the North to make a covenant; but she will not retain her strength, nor will she endure, and she along with those who brought her, and he who fathered her, and he who strengthened her in those times, will be delivered up. Of the four kingdoms arising from the monarchy of Alexander of Macedon, the northern (Syrian) and southern (Egyptian) became strengthened over time, standing in constant struggle with each other. Located between them, Palestine was also drawn into their disputes and, as formerly subject to Alexander of Macedon, repeatedly changed hands: from Syria to Egypt and vice versa. The revelation concerns only these two kingdoms, as having contact with the people of God; the history of the other two—the Thracian and Macedonian—is left aside. The successors of Alexander of Macedon on the thrones of Egypt and Syria were Ptolemy Lagus (323–285 B.C.) and Seleucus Nicator. The first of them, the “king of the South,” soon became a strong and wealthy ruler; however, Seleucus Nicator, ruling from Phrygia to the Indus, was not inferior to his rival, with whom he was forced to wage war, making attempts to draw under his rule the Jewish people subject to Ptolemy. An attempt at a more or less lasting rapprochement between the two kings, “northern” and “southern,” was made under the successor of Ptolemy Lagus—Ptolemy II Philadelphus—and the second successor of Seleucus—Antiochus Theus. Desiring to put an end to the disputes, Ptolemy Philadelphus gave to Antiochus his daughter Berenice, granting in her dowry, among other things, Cœle-Syria and Phoenicia. At that time Antiochus was already married to Laodice and had two sons by her—Seleucus Callinicus and Antiochus. Although Laodice with her children was removed before the marriage to Berenice, she returned to the court after Ptolemy Philadelphus’s death and, fearing her rival, poisoned her husband, had Berenice and her young son killed, and elevated her son by Theus, Seleucus Callinicus, to the Syrian throne. Thus “the daughter of the king of the South... did not retain strength in her hands, and did not endure, and her offspring.” The attempt at rapprochement between the kingdoms came to nothing.

Daniel 11:7. But a branch will arise from her roots, he will come against the army and will enter the fortifications of the king of the North, and he will act against them and prevail. Daniel 11:8. Even the gods of them, their idols with the precious vessels of them, the silver and the gold, he will carry away captive to Egypt, and for some years he will stand higher than the king of the North. Daniel 11:9. Though this one will make an invasion of the realm of the king of the South, yet he will return to his own land. The avenger of Berenice was a “shoot from her root,”—the brother of Berenice, son and successor of Ptolemy Philadelphus—Ptolemy Euergetes. He killed the murderer and rival Laodice, then seized territories belonging to Syria: Cilicia, Pamphylia, Ionia, Palestine, and others. The menacing invasion of the “king of the South” ended only through an uprising that broke out in Egypt. Returning home, Ptolemy seized from the conquered territories countless treasures, 40,000 talents of silver, and 2,500 precious vessels and idols, among which were the statues that had been transferred from Egypt to Persia by Cambyses. For their return Ptolemy received the title Euergetes. While he was occupied with pacifying Egypt, Seleucus again drew to his side the Lesser Asian territories and undertook a campaign against Egypt, but in a decisive battle suffered such a defeat that he returned to Antioch with only a few companions.

Daniel 11:10. Then his sons will arm themselves and assemble a great multitude, and one will certainly come and overflow and pass through, and he will return and fight against him to the fortifications of his realm. Daniel 11:11. And the king of the South will be enraged and will go out and fight with the king of the North, and will muster a great army, and the army will be given into his hand. Daniel 11:12. And the army will be strengthened, and the heart of the king will be exalted; he will lay low tens of thousands, but will not prevail. Daniel 11:13. For the king of the North will return and will assemble a multitude greater than the former, and after some years will come with a great army and much wealth. After the death of Callinicus, who died in captivity among the Parthians, the throne passed to his son Seleucus Ceraunus. Poisoned by his attendants two years after his accession, he accomplished nothing against Egypt. Ceraunus was followed by his brother Antiochus, who, desiring to annex Cœle-Syria and Phoenicia to his kingdom, began war against the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philopator. During this war he seized Seleucia on the Orontes, Tyre, and Ptolemais, twice advanced to the city of Dora, lying two miles north of Caesarea, besieged it, and finally concluded a four-month truce. Upon resumption of hostilities, in 218 B.C. he undertook a new campaign against Egypt, during which he trapped Egyptian forces at Sidon and seized Gilead, Samaria, and Phoenicia. But at the beginning of 217 B.C. Ptolemy Philopator came against Antiochus with an army of 70,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 73 elephants, and inflicted a terrible defeat upon him at Raphia, near Gaza. Having lost 10,000 infantry and 300 cavalry in the battle, Antiochus escaped death by flight; the war, however, ended in peace. Eighteen years after the defeat at Raphia, Antiochus, taking advantage of the minority of Ptolemy Philopator’s successor—Ptolemy Epiphanes—the internal disorders in Egypt arising from the cruelty and misrule of the regent Agathocles, and finally the aid of Philip of Macedon, came against Egypt and succeeded first of all in seizing Phoenicia and southern Syria (Dan 11:16).

Daniel 11:14. In those times many will stand against the king of the South, and the violent ones of your people will exalt themselves in order to fulfill the vision; but they will fall. Daniel 11:15. And the king of the North will come and build a siege mound and capture a fortified city; and the forces of the South will not stand, neither the elite of his army; they will lack the strength to resist. Daniel 11:16. And the one who comes to him will do as he pleases, and no one will stand before him; he will take his stand in the glorious land, and it will be in his power. In the war of Antiochus with Egypt, part of the Palestinean Jews took his side, forgetting the benefits shown to them by the Ptolemies. They went out to meet Antiochus, joined his forces, and helped them in attacks on the garrison left by the Egyptian commander Scopas on the hill of Jerusalem. But this alliance with the Syrian king brought the Jews nothing but harm. Antiochus began his conquest of Egyptian territories with Palestine itself, as a possession of the king of the South; he took many cities subject to Egypt, including Jerusalem. The “forces of the South” could not resist him—the Egyptian generals with the elite army. It was Scopas, who had managed to conquer Cœle-Syria, who suffered a heavy defeat in 198 B.C. at Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, as a result of which all Cœle-Syria and Palestine up to Gaza came under Antiochus’s control again.

Daniel 11:17. And he will intend to come with the full strength of his kingdom, and will come with equitable terms with him; and he will give him a daughter of women in order to ruin him, but she will not stand with him or be on his side. Desiring to seize the Egyptian possessions of the “king of the South” as much as possible, Antiochus began to act with cunning. After ravaging Palestine he concluded peace with Ptolemy and betrothed to him, a seven-year-old boy, his daughter Cleopatra, hoping that with her help he would destroy the young king and seize Egypt. But Ptolemy and his nobles, having discovered Antiochus’s designs, were very cautious; moreover, Cleopatra herself clearly inclined toward her husband rather than her father. Thanks to all this, Antiochus’s treacherous designs “did not succeed” and brought him no benefit whatsoever.

Daniel 11:18. Then he will turn his face toward the coastlands and will seize many, but a certain commander will put an end to his shame, and moreover will turn his shame upon him. Daniel 11:19. Then he will turn his face toward the strongholds of his own land; but he will stumble and fall and will not be found. After failing in his attempt to seize Egypt, Antiochus satisfied his passion for conquest with a successful campaign in 197 B.C. against the islands and coastal regions of Asia Minor: he conquered Rhodes, Samos, Colophon, Phocaea, and others. The end of his victories came from the Roman consul Scipio Nasica (“a certain commander”) and his brother Scipio Africanus. Sent by the Roman government to protect the islands under Roman protection, they in 190 B.C. inflicted a terrible defeat on Antiochus at Magnesia. Having concluded a humiliating peace with the victors, he returned to his land and soon perished during a popular uprising that broke out over the king’s plundering of the temple of Zeus, or Bel, in the city of Elymais, south of the Caspian Sea.

Daniel 11:20. And there will arise in his place one who will exact the tribute of the kingdom of his honor, but within a few days he will be broken, and not in anger, nor in battle. The successor of Antiochus was his son Seleucus IV Philopator, who reigned 12 years and accomplished nothing outstanding. He only managed to disgrace himself by attempting to rob the treasures of the Jerusalem temple, for which purpose he sent under a plausible pretext his official Heliodorus to Palestine. But the Lord miraculously saved His sanctuary from the impious man (2 Macc 3:7-29).

Daniel 11:21. And there will arise in his place a despicable person, to whom they will not give the honor of kingship; but he will come in without warning and seize the kingdom through intrigue. Daniel 11:22. And the overflowing forces will be swept away before him and broken; and also the prince of the covenant. Daniel 11:23. And after the treaty is made with him, he will act deceitfully, for he will go up and become strong with a small number of people. Daniel 11:24. He will enter the prosperous regions of a province and will accomplish what his fathers never did, nor his fathers’ fathers; he will distribute plunder, spoils, and possessions among them, and he will devise his plans against strongholds, but only for a time. The successor of Seleucus Philopator was his brother, the son of Antiochus, Antiochus Epiphanes (175–164 B.C.). He is characterized as “despicable,” that is, contemptible in moral worth and unworthy by his rights to the throne, so “they will not give him the honor of kingship,” but “he seizes the kingdom through intrigue.” And indeed, Antiochus Epiphanes cleverly removed the legitimate heir to the throne—Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, who was then a hostage in Rome—and prevented the claims to the same throne of the state treasurer Heliodorus and his own sister, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, in favor of her young son, the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philometer. With the latter Antiochus Epiphanes began a war in which the “overflowing forces” of Egypt were defeated by him (1 Macc 1:17-19). Then, having concluded a temporary alliance with Philometer, Antiochus, using his kinship as a pretext, entered Memphis and here, under the pretense that he was taking charge of the young nephew-king and his affairs, began to rule Egypt absolutely: he “entered prosperous provinces” of Egypt and plundered them heavily; he thought about how to destroy Egyptian strongholds and weaken the country and then finally seize the southern kingdom.

Daniel 11:25. And he will stir up his power and his courage against the king of the South with a great army, and the king of the South will be stirred up to battle with an even greater and mightier army; but he will not stand, because there will be plots against him. Daniel 11:26. And those who eat at his table will seek to destroy him; his army will be swept away, and many will fall slain. Daniel 11:27. As for both kings, their hearts will be bent on doing evil, and they will speak lies at the same table; but it will not succeed, for an end is still to come at the appointed time. The designs of Antiochus to “rule over both kingdoms” (1 Macc 1:16) and the campaign undertaken by him for this purpose against Egypt did not, however, meet with success: he returned to Syria with the plundered spoils.

Daniel 11:28. And he will return to his land with great riches, and his heart will be set against the holy covenant, and he will accomplish his purpose and return to his land. Enraged by this failure, Antiochus compensated himself at the expense of Judea. With a strong force he entered Jerusalem, went into the temple and took from it the golden altar, the temple vessels, and all the furnishings of the temple, removed its outer decorations, seized the gold, silver, and all the treasures he found in the sanctuary, and with this plunder returned to his capital (1 Macc 1:20-24).

Daniel 11:29. At the appointed time he will return and go toward the South; but it will not be like the former time. Daniel 11:30. For ships from Kittim will come against him; therefore he will be disheartened and will return in rage against the holy covenant and will take action. So he will return and show favor to those who abandon the holy covenant. Daniel 11:31. And he will station troops who will profane the sanctuary, the fortress, and will take away the daily sacrifice, and they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. Soon Antiochus again marched against Egypt (2 Macc 5:1), but this campaign was unsuccessful: Roman legates arrived at the same time and demanded that Antiochus withdraw from the lands of Rome’s friends. According to the accounts of Livy and Justin, the commander of the Roman fleet (“ships from Kittim”) Popillius Laenas, meeting Antiochus four miles from Alexandria, drew a circle around him and said: “You will not leave here until you promise to leave Egypt.” Antiochus left Egypt, but he vented his failure on the Jews: plundered and burned their cities, took their livestock, etc. (1 Macc 1:29-32); entered into a covenant with the “apostates from the holy covenant,” who themselves “joined with the heathen and sold themselves to do evil” (1 Macc 1:11-15); stationed in Jerusalem a “garrison” that “shed innocent blood around the sanctuary” and desecrated the holy place in every way (1 Macc 1:33-37; 2 Macc 6:4-5), and finally, having stopped the daily worship, he set up in the temple of Jerusalem a statue of Jupiter Olympius and called the temple itself the temple of this god (1 Macc 1:54; 2 Macc 6:2).

Daniel 11:32. With flattery he will corrupt those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action. Daniel 11:33. And those with insight among the people will give understanding to the many; yet they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder, for many days. Daniel 11:34. Now when they fall, they will receive a little help, and many will join them, but not with a pure heart. Daniel 11:35. And some of those with insight will fall, to refine, purge, and make them white, up to the time of the end; for it is still to come at the appointed time. By flattery and cunning, promising rewards and earthly advantages, Antiochus attracted to his side those who came forth from Israel as “sons of lawlessness,” who joined in alliance with the heathen and persuaded others to do likewise, built heathen schools, introduced heathen rites, departing from the law of Moses, sacrificed to idols, etc. (1 Macc 1:11-15). The greater glory was thus acquired by those people truly “knowing their God”: devoted to the faith of their fathers, in the epoch of persecution they “grew strong” and “were strengthened” in their religious zeal, preferring rather to die than violate the law of the Lord (1 Macc 1:62-68; 2 Macc 2:16-30). These zealots drew to themselves the best part of the people of God, although they themselves suffered terrible persecutions from the heathen: they were compelled by force to abandon the law of the Most High, to sacrifice to idols, to eat swine’s meat, to participate in heathen religious processions, and for refusal they were killed, burned, hanged, subjected to torture and torment, led into captivity, their cities and houses were burned, etc. (1 Macc 1:24-32; 1 Macc 2:26-38; 2 Macc 5:13; 2 Macc 6:7-11; 2 Macc 7:1). True, the Jews had at this time “some help” in the person of Mattathias and his sons, who gathered around him the zealots of the faith and by force of arms “defended the law from the hand of the heathen” (1 Macc 2:16-48), and his children purified the Jerusalem temple from heathen abominations and restored true worship (1 Macc 4 and following), but this help was insufficient for the struggle against the cruel persecutor of Judaism. Even those Jews who under the influence of the victories of the Maccabees joined the society of the zealots of the faith (1 Macc 7:6), at every opportunity fell away from it (1 Macc 6:21-23; 1 Macc 9:23).

Daniel 11:36. And the king will do as he pleases. He will exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and will speak dreadful things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is accomplished, for that which is decreed will be done. Daniel 11:37. He will have no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he have regard for any god; for he will magnify himself above them all. Daniel 11:38. But instead he will honor a god of strongholds; a god whom his fathers did not know he will honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. Daniel 11:39. And he will deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god; he will acknowledge and increase the honor of those who recognize him, and he will cause them to rule over many, and will distribute the land for a price. In his persecution of the Jews Antiochus reached such pride and arrogance that he considered himself above every god: he slandered the “God of gods,” considering himself equal to Him, and despised even the “gods of his fathers”; only the “god of strongholds”—Jupiter Olympius—he set up in the temple of Jerusalem, fortifying the stronghold itself—the capital of Judea—and dedicating both “god” and the temple itself; only this god, “whom his fathers did not know” and whose cult he became acquainted with in Rome, he honored, making rich offerings and rewarding with honor, glory, and power those who “acknowledged” and honored the god he favored (1 Macc 2:18).

Daniel 11:40. At the time of the end the king of the South will collide with him, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships; and he will enter countries, overflow them, and pass through. Daniel 11:41. He will also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries will fall; but these will escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the foremost of the Ammonites. Daniel 11:42. Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. Daniel 11:43. But he will gain control over the treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians will follow at his heels. Daniel 11:44. But rumors from the East and from the North will alarm him, and he will go forth in great rage to destroy and annihilate many. Daniel 11:45. And he will pitch his royal tents between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him. Toward the end of his reign Antiochus with a large force again marched against the Egyptian king and, passing through the territories of the “king of the South,” devastated them. Judea was plundered by him as well. Only the possessions of the Idumaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites remained untouched: he left them in peace, hastening against the Egyptian king so as not to give him time to strengthen himself. Rumors spreading about an uprising against him in distant territories of his kingdom to the north and east forced Antiochus to hurry his return home (cf. 2 Macc 5:11). Enraged, the king moved toward the boundaries of his realm and encamped between the sea and Jerusalem. Soon after this, while returning from a campaign to Persia, between Antioch and Ecbatana, Antiochus died, struck down by God with a terrible disease (2 Macc 9:1).