Welcome back to my study/review of The Book of Daniel. If you missed the previous parts of this study, you can find them HERE.
Daniel 11:1-6
11 “And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.
2 “And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. 3 Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. 4 And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.
5 “Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority. 6 After some years they shall make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up, and her attendants, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times.
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This is one of those visions from Daniel that includes so much detail that a lot of scholars start with the assumption that it was written after the events described. Here he describes the rise of Alexander the Great, the break-up of the Greek Empire into four pieces, and then the eventual infighting between those pieces. We should interpret this vision alongside the visions of Daniel previously (letting the text interpret and inform itself). It becomes very clear from the text that the previously mentioned visions refer to a Persian Empire following the Babylonian one, and then a Greek following the Persians. The number four is used consistently across visions.
But let’s jump into the commentary notes, starting with Ellicott’s Bible Commentary:
(1) In the first year of Darius.—These words must be closely connected with the last verse of Daniel 10:0. The allusion is, most probably, to the fall of Babylon and the return from the Exile, at which time, as at the Exodus, the angel of the Lord went before His people. There is also a reference to Daniel 6:22.
We should remember that Gabriel is the Speaker in these verses. So the commentary notes here link his statement with the previously described activities of Gabriel. God sending Gabriel to strengthen Darius indicates that though rulers over the nations might not be in alignment with God’s will (a topic we discussed in the last post) that God is still ultimately in control over events.
Continuing on in Ellicott at verse 2:
(2) The truth.—Comp. Daniel 10:21. This is the commencement of the revelation promised in Daniel 10:14; and from this point till the end of the book the difficulties that have to be encountered in attempting an exposition are almost insuperable. It has been customary from the time of St. Jerome, if not from an earlier epoch, to explain most of what follows as referring to the Ptolemies and Seleucidæ. The difficulties which oppose this interpretation will be pointed out in the notes. It is a question whether, after all, the early interpretation is correct, and, if not, whether this revelation does not still await its complete fulfilment. The mere similarity which exists between certain things predicted here and what actually occurred in the times of the Ptolemies is not sufficient to limit the fulfilment of the prophecy to those times, still less to justify the assumption that the section before us is a history of what occurred from the disruption of the Greek Empire to the death of Antiochus. “History repeats itself;” and just as Antiochus (Daniel 8:23-25) is a type of Antichrist (Daniel 7:21), so the events and political combinations which preceded Antiochus may be regarded as typical of what will occur before the coming of the Messiah and the general resurrection, with a prediction of which (Daniel 12:2-3) this revelation concludes.
Three kings.—It is hard to say who these were. Cyrus being on the throne already, it is most probable that his three successors are intended—Cambyses, Darius, and Xerxes. Those four kings appear to have been selected whose influence was most prominent in its bearings upon Israel. Xerxes is called the fourth king because the reckoning dates from Cyrus, and the short reign of the Pseudo Smerdis is not taken into account. Not only do the riches of Xerxes point him out as the last king, but also his conduct towards Greece may be correctly described as “stirring up” against himself “the realm of Grecia.”
Against . . .—The passage gives better sense if translated, he shall stir up all, the kingdom of Greece, that is, amongst those stirred up the kingdom of Greece is most prominent. It should be noticed that at the time of the invasion of Europe by Xerxes, Greece was in no sense “a kingdom.” Such language is incompatible with an authorship during the Maccabee period.
It’s worth pointing out – and we’ll come back to it again – that prophecy can rightly be read as referring to two time periods, simultaneously. We see this captured in the idea of “now and not yet.” The prophecy of Daniel may refer to the fall out of the rise of the Greek Empire, and in addition to that, it may also foreshadow an event further in the future. We’ll try to look at the entire section as a whole, when we get to the end, to see if that makes sense.
Continuing to verse 3, now in The Pulpit Commentaries:
And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with groat dominion, and do according to his will. None of the versions imply any difference of reading. The Hebrew implies that the king was a mighty warrior. All critics are agreed that here the reference is to Alexander the Great. This does not mean that Alexander immediately followed Xerxes, but that his expedition was the revenge for that of Xerxes. Alexander, in his answer to Darius Codomannus, justified his invasion of Persia by referring back to Xerxes’ invasion of Greece. The two expeditions, that which Xerxes made into Greece, and that of Alexander into Persia, might be regarded as causally connected.
And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those. The LXX. rendering is, “And when he is risen up, his kingdom shall be broken, and divided to the four winds of heaven; not according to his might, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: because his kingdom shall be taken away, and he shall teach these things to others.” It is difficult to see what reading the LXX. translator had when he rendered, “his might,” for no word meaning “might” is at all like aḥareetho, “his posterity.” In the last clause he must have read, not milbad, but melamayd. Theodotion resembles the Massoretic more closely; he renders, “But when his kingdom stood (shall stand), it shall be broken, and shall be scattered to the four winds of heaven; and to his latter end (ἔσχατα), nor according to his rule which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be rooted out, and (let) for others besides these.” The Peshitta agrees generally with this, only that when in the English we have, “not to his posterity,” it has, “not to his sword (siphoh)” The last clause is somewhat paraphrastic, “And his kingdom shall be rooted, and shall not be to others save these.” The Vulgate agrees with the Massoretic. The description here given of the empire of Alexander the Great is strictly accurate; his empire did not go to his posterity, nor did any of his successors possess a dominion as extensive as his. For others beside those. This has been thought to refer to the successors of those who first divided the empire among them. It seems more natural to regard “those” as referring to the posterity of Alexander, as the nearest antecedent.
Xerxes invades Greece. The marathon is invented. The famous Battle of Thermopylae follows. The Greeks then start taking warfare much more seriously. Eventually Alexander the Great comes along and views himself as having cause to invade Persia.
Interestingly, too, Socrates is born in 470 BC, 20 years after the invasion by Xerxes. He is followed by Plato and then Aristotle (who tutored Alexander.) If Xerxes stirred up the Greeks, this abrupt elevation of thought should be considered part of that stirring up also. Did “The Prince of Greece” play a role in that? Perhaps.
Returning again to Ellicott for his note on verse 5:
(5) The king.—This king of the south (see Daniel 11:8) is suddenly introduced to our notice. The vagueness of the language prevents us from asserting that the reference is to Ptolemy Soter, who assumed the title of king about B.C. 304. Equally obscure is the phrase “one of his princes.” Both the Greek versions interpret the passage to mean “that one of the princes of the king of the south shall be stronger than his former master.” It is hard to see how Seleucus Nicator can be called a “prince” of Ptolemy Soter. Any attempt at making the pronoun “his” refer to the mighty king mentioned in the last verse is opposed to the context, and to introduce any fresh sentence such as “shall arise” is an unwarrantable assumption. The obscurity of the Hebrew text is well reproduced in the English Version. It should be stated that Ptolemy took Jerusalem B.C. 320, and that these times must have been very critical to the Jews.
One thing that strikes me about this verse – and in particular some of the arguments around this section as a whole – is that they feel contradictory.
- It must have been written after because it gets too much correct
- It’s obscure in such a way that it seems to get details wrong..
If you were writing a prophecy after it has already happened, would you create the appearance of making mistakes? Wouldn’t you be very clear? There are arguments that this section is accurate, but I just wanted to point that contradiction out.
Continuing now to verse 6, continuing in Ellicott.
(6) In the end.—Comp. Daniel 11:8; Daniel 11:13, and 2 Chronicles 18:2. Here again the reference is most obscure. If the “joining themselves together” refers to the marriage of Antiochus II. with Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and if “the agreement” (comp. “upright ones,” Daniel 11:17) refers to the terms of the marriage, which were that Antiochus should put away his former wife Laodice, and appoint her firstborn son successor to the throne, then it must be remarked that history is irreconcilable with the prophecy. Also it appears from Daniel 10:14 that this revelation bears upon the future of Israel, and it does not appear that this marriage affected the Jewish people more than any other marriage. This, and the fact that a period of more than fifty years intervened between the events supposed to be implied in Daniel 11:5-6, make the traditional interpretation very unsatisfactory. The language refers to what is mentioned as one of the characteristics of the last empire (Daniel 2:43), various attempts to consolidate earthly powers by political marriages. These do not characterise the era of the Seleucidæ any more than they do the times of Ahab, or many other periods of history.
Shall not retain.—The Greek versions show the difficulties experienced by the translators, the LXX. apparently following a different text. The meaning appears to be that the marriage will not accomplish its intended purpose. The king of the south, instead of becoming independent of his northern rival, will only become more subjected to him than he was previously. This does not appear to have happened with regard to Ptolemy Philadelphus and Antiochus Theos, the former of whom is generally identified with “he that begat her,” the latter with “he that strengthened her.”
Here – as the note states – the interpretation of the passage in the time period of the Greek Empires is difficult, so much so that many believe this must refer to the 4th Kingdom about which Daniel has referred often.
In lieu of that confusion, I will share a video purporting to clarify what’s happening. We’ll look at several interpretations when we reach the end of the section, but it might be helpful to have this in mind as we read:
