{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"DAN","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Daniel","commonName":"Daniel","introduction":"DANIEL, that is, \"God is my judge\"; probably of the blood royal (compare Dan 1:3, with Ch1 3:1, where a son of David is named so). Jerusalem may have been his birthplace (though Dan 9:24, \"thy holy city,\" does not necessarily imply this). He was carried to Babylon among the Hebrew captives brought thither by Nebuchadnezzar at the first deportation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. As he and his three companions are called (Dan 1:4) \"children,\" he cannot have been more than about twelve years old when put in training, according to Eastern etiquette, to be a courtier (Dan 1:3, Dan 1:6). He then received a new name, by which it was usual to mark a change in one's condition (Kg2 23:34; Kg2 24:17; Ezr 5:14; Est 2:7), Belteshazzar, that is, \"a prince favored by Bel\" (Dan 1:7). His piety and wisdom were proverbial among his countrymen at an early period; probably owing to that noble proof he gave of faithfulness, combined with wisdom, in abstaining from the food sent to him from the king's table, as being polluted by the idolatries usual at heathen banquets (Dan 1:8-16). Hence Ezekiel's reference to him (Eze 14:14, Eze 14:20; Eze 28:3) is precisely of that kind we should expect; a coincidence which must be undesigned. Ezekiel refers to him not as a writer, but as exhibiting a character righteous and wise in discerning secrets, in those circumstances now found in his book, which are earlier than the time when Ezekiel wrote. As Joseph rose in Egypt by interpreting Pharaoh's dreams, so Daniel, by interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's, was promoted to be governor of Babylonia, and president of the Magian priest-caste. Under Evil-merodach, Nebuchadnezzar's successor, as a change of officers often attends the accession of a new king, Daniel seems to have had a lower post, which led him occasionally to be away from Babylon (Dan 8:2, Dan 8:27). Again he came into note when he read the mystic writing of Belshazzar's doom on the wall on the night of that monarch's impious feast. BEROSUS calls the last Babylonian king Nabonidus and says he was not killed, but had an honorable abode in Carmania assigned to him, after having surrendered voluntarily in Borsippa. RAWLINSON has cleared up the discrepancy from the Nineveh inscription. Belshazzar was joint king with his father, Evil-merodach or Nabonidus (called Minus in the inscriptions), to whom he was subordinate. He shut himself up in Babylon, while the other king took refuge elsewhere, namely, in Borsippa. BEROSUS gives the Chaldean account, which suppresses all about Belshazzar, as being to the national dishonor. Had Daniel been a late book, he would no doubt have taken up the later account of BEROSUS. If he gave a history differing from that current in Babylonia, the Jews of that region would not have received it as true. Darius the Mede, or Cyaxares II, succeeded and reigned two years. The mention of this monarch's reign, almost unknown to profane history (being eclipsed by the splendor of Cyrus) is an incidental proof that Daniel wrote as a contemporary historian of events which he knew, and did not borrow from others. In the third year of Cyrus he saw the visions (the tenth through twelfth chapters) relating to his people down to the latest days and the coming resurrection. He must have been about eighty-four years old at this time. Tradition represents Daniel as having died and been buried at Shushan. Though his advanced age did not allow him to be among those who returned to Palestine, yet he never ceased to have his people's interests nearest to his heart (Dan. 9:3-19; Dan 10:12).\n\nAUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL. Dan 7:1, Dan 7:28; Dan 8:2; Dan 9:2; Dan 10:1-2; Dan 12:4-5, testify that it was composed by Daniel himself. He does not mention himself in the first six chapters, which are historical; for in these it is not the author, but the events which are the prominent point. In the last six, which are prophetical, the author makes himself known, for here it was needed, prophecy being a revelation of words to particular men. It holds a third rank in the Hebrew canon: not among the prophets, but in the Hagiographa (Chetubim), between Esther and Ezra, books like it relating to the captivity; because he did not strictly belong to those who held exclusively the profession of \"prophets\" in the theocracy, but was rather a \"seer,\" having the gift, but not the office of prophet. Were the book an interpolated one, it doubtless would have been placed among the prophets. Its present position is a proof of its genuineness, as it was deliberately put in a position different from that where most would expect to find it. Placed between Esther, and Ezra and Nehemiah, it separated the historical books of the time after the captivity. Thus, Daniel was, as BENGEL calls him, the politician, chronologer, and historian among the prophets. The Psalms also, though many are prophetical, are ranked with the Hagiographa, not with the prophets; and the Revelation of John is separated from his Epistles, as Daniel is from the Old Testament prophets. Instead of writing in the midst of the covenant people, and making them the foreground of his picture, he writes in a heathen court, the world kingdoms occupying the foreground, and the kingdom of God, though ultimately made the most significant, the background. His peculiar position in the heathen court is reflected in his peculiar position in the canon. As the \"prophets\" in the Old Testament, so the epistles of the apostles in the New Testament were written by divinely commissioned persons for their contemporaries. But Daniel and John were not in immediate contact with the congregation, but isolated and alone with God, the one in a heathen court, the other on a lonely isle (Rev 1:9). PORPHYRY, the assailant of Christianity in the third century, asserted that the Book of Daniel was a forgery of the time of the Maccabees (170-164 B.C.), a time when confessedly there were no prophets, written after the events as to Antiochus Epiphanes, which it professes to foretell; so accurate are the details. A conclusive proof of Daniel's inspiration, if his prophecies can be shown to have been before the events. Now we know, from JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 10.11.7], that the Jews in Christ's days recognized Daniel as in the canon. Zechariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, centuries before Antiochus, refer to it. Jesus refers to it in His characteristic designation, \"Son of man,\" Mat 24:30 (Dan 7:13); also expressly by name, and as a \"prophet,\" in Mat 24:15 (compare Mat 24:21, with Dan 12:1, &c.); and in the moment that decided His life (Mat 26:64) or death, when the high priest adjured him by the living God. Also, in Luk 1:19-26, \"Gabriel\" is mentioned, whose name occurs nowhere else in Scripture, save in Dan 8:16; Dan 9:21. Besides the references to it in Revelation, Paul confirms the prophetical part of it, as to the blasphemous king (Dan 7:8, Dan 7:25; Dan 11:36), in Co1 6:2; Th2 2:3-4; the narrative part, as to the miraculous deliverances from \"the lions\" and \"the fire,\" in Heb 11:33-34. Thus the book is expressly attested by the New Testament on the three points made the stumbling-block of neologists--the predictions, the narratives of miracles, and the manifestations of angels. An objection has been stated to the unity of the book, namely, that Jesus quotes no part of the first half of Daniel. But Mat 21:44 would be an enigma if it were not a reference to the \"stone that smote the image\" (Dan 2:34-35, Dan 2:44-45). Thus the New Testament sanctions the second, third, sixth, seventh, and eleventh chapters. The design of the miracles in the heathen courts where Daniel was, as of those of Moses in Egypt, was to lead the world power, which seemed to be victorious over the theocracy, to see the essential inner superiority of the seemingly fallen kingdom of God to itself, and to show prostrate Israel that the power of God was the same as of old in Egypt. The first book of Maccabees (compare 1 Maccabees 1:24; 9:27, 40, with Dan 12:1; Dan 11:26, of the Septuagint) refers to Daniel as an accredited book, and even refers to the Septuagint Alexandrian version of it. The fact of Daniel having a place in the Septuagint shows it was received by the Jews at large prior to the Maccabean times. The Septuagint version so arbitrarily deviated from the Hebrew Daniel, that Theodotius' version was substituted for it in the early Christian Church. JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 11.8.5] mentions that Alexander the Great had designed to punish the Jews for their fidelity to Darius, but that Jaddua (332 B.C.), the high priest, met him at the head of a procession and averted his wrath by showing him Daniel's prophecy that a Grecian monarch should overthrow Persia. Certain it is, Alexander favored the Jews, and JOSEPHUS' statement gives an explanation of the fact; at least it shows that the Jews in JOSEPHUS' days believed that Daniel was extant in Alexander's days, long before the Maccabees. With Jaddua (high priest from 341-322 B.C.) the Old Testament history ends (Neh 12:11). (The register of the priests and Levites was not written by Nehemiah, who died about 400 B.C., but was inserted with divine sanction by the collectors of the canon subsequently.) An objection to Daniel's authenticity has been rested on a few Greek words found in it. But these are mostly names of Greek musical instruments, which were imported by Greece from the East, rather than vice versa. Some of the words are derived from the common Indo-Germanic stock of both Greek and Chaldee: hence their appearance in both tongues. And one or two may have come through the Greeks of Asia Minor to the Chaldee. The fact that from the fourth verse of the second chapter to the end of the seventh, the language is Chaldee, but the rest Hebrew, is not an argument against, but for, its authenticity. So in Ezra the two languages are found. The work, if that of one author, must have been composed by someone in the circumstances of Daniel, that is, by one familiar with both languages. No native-born Hebrew who had not lived in Chaldea would know Chaldee so well as to use it with the same idiomatic ease as his native tongue; the very impurities in Daniel's use of both are just such as were natural to one in his circumstances, but unnatural to one in a later age, or to one not half Hebrew, half Chaldean in residence as Daniel was. Those parts of Daniel which concern the whole world are mostly Chaldee, then the language of the world empire. So Greek was made the language of the New Testament, which was designed for the whole world. Those affecting the Jews, mostly Hebrew; and this not so impure as that of Ezekiel. His Chaldee is a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. Two predictions alone are enough to prove to us that Daniel was a true prophet. (1) That his prophecies reach beyond Antiochus; namely, he foretells the rise of the four great monarchies, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome (the last not being in Daniel's time known beyond the precincts of Italy, or rather of Latium), and that no other earthly kingdom would subvert the fourth, but that it would divide into parts. All this has come to pass. No fifth great earthly monarchy has arisen, though often attempted, as by Charlemagne, Charles V, and Napoleon. (2) The time of Messiah's advent, as dated from a certain decree, His being cut off, and the destruction of the city. \"He who denies Daniel's prophecies,\" says SIR ISAAC NEWTON, \"undermines Christianity, which is founded on Daniel's prophecies concerning Christ.\"\n\nCHARACTERISTICS OF DANIEL. The vision mode of revelation is the exception in other prophets, the rule in Daniel. In Zechariah (Zec. 1:1-6:15), who lived after Daniel, the same mode appears, but the other form from the seventh chapter to the end. The Revelation of St. John alone is perfectly parallel to Daniel, which may be called the Old Testament Apocalypse. In the contents too there is the difference above noticed, that he views the kingdom of God from the standpoint of the world kingdoms, the development of which is his great subject. This mode of viewing it was appropriate to his own position in a heathen court, and to the relation of subjection in which the covenant-people then stood to the world powers. No longer are single powers of the world incidentally introduced, but the universal monarchies are the chief theme, in which the worldly principle, opposed to the kingdom of God, manifests itself fully. The near and distant are not seen in the same perspective, as by the other prophets, who viewed the whole future from the eschatological point; but in Daniel the historical details are given of that development of the world powers which must precede the advent of the kingdom [AUBERLEN].\n\nSIGNIFICANCE OF THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. The exile is the historical basis of Daniel's prophecies, as Daniel implies in the first chapter, which commences with the beginning, and ends with the termination, of the captivity (Dan 1:1, Dan 1:21; compare Dan 9:1-2). A new stage in the theocracy begins with the captivity. Nebuchadnezzar made three incursions into Judah. The first under Jehoiakim (606 B.C.), in which Daniel was carried away, subjected the theocracy to the Babylonian world power. The second (598 B.C.) was that in which Jehoiachin and Ezekiel were carried away. In the third (588 B.C.), Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried away Zedekiah. Originally, Abraham was raised out of the \"sea\" (Dan 7:2) of the nations, as an island holy to God, and his seed chosen as God's mediator of His revelations of love to mankind. Under David and Solomon, the theocracy, as opposed to the heathen power, attained its climax in the Old Testament, not only being independent, but lord of the surrounding nations; so that the period of these two kings was henceforth made the type of the Messianic. But when God's people, instead of resting on Him, seek alliance with the world power, that very power is made the instrument of their chastisement. So Ephraim (722 B.C.) fell by Assyria; and Judah also, drawn into the sphere of the world's movements from the time of Ahaz, who sought Assyrian help (740 B.C., Isa. 7:1-25) at last fell by Babylon, and thenceforth has been more or less dependent on the world monarchies, and so, till Messiah, was favored with no revelations from the time of Malachi (four hundred years). Thus, from the beginning of the exile, the theocracy, in the strict sense, ceased on earth; the rule of the world powers superseding it. But God's covenant with Israel remains firm (Rom 11:29); therefore, a period of blessing under Messiah's kingdom is now foretold as about to follow their long chastisement. The exile thus is the turning point in the history of the theocracy, which ROOS thus divides: (1) From Adam to the exodus out of Egypt. (2) From the exodus to the beginning of the Babylonian captivity. (3) From the captivity to the millennium. (4) From the millennium to the end of the world. The position of Daniel in the Babylonian court was in unison with the altered relations of the theocracy and the world power, which new relation was to be the theme of his prophecy. Earlier prophets, from the standpoint of Israel, treated of Israel in its relation to the world powers; Daniel, from Babylon, the center of the then world power, treats of the world powers in their relation to Israel. His seventy years' residence in Babylon, and his high official position there, gave him an insight into the world's politics, fitting him to be the recipient of political revelations; while his spiritual experiences, gained through Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation, Belshazzar's downfall, and the rapid decay of the Babylonian empire itself, as well as the miraculous deliverances of himself and his friends (the third through sixth chapters), all fitted him for regarding things from the spiritual standpoint, from which the world's power appears transient, but the glory of God's kingdom eternal. As his political position was the body, the school of magicians in which he had studied for three years (Dan 1:4-5) was the soul; and his mind strong in faith and nourished by the earlier prophecies (Dan 9:2), the spirit of his prophecy, which only waited for the spirit of revelation from above to kindle it. So God fits His organs for their work. AUBERLEN compares Daniel to Joseph: the one at the beginning, the other at the end of the Jewish history of revelation; both representatives of God and His people at heathen courts; both interpreters of the dim presentiments of truth, expressed in God-sent dreams, and therefore raised to honor by the powers of the world: so representing Israel's calling to be a royal priesthood among the nations; and types of Christ, the true Israel, and of Israel's destination to be a light to lighten the whole Gentile world, as Rom 11:12, Rom 11:15 foretells. As Achilles at the beginning, and Alexander at the end, of Grecian history are the mirrors of the whole life of the Hellenic people, so Joseph and Daniel of Israel.\n\nCONTENTS OF THE BOOK. Historical and biographical introduction in the first chapter. Daniel, a captive exile, is representative of his nation in its servitude and exile: while his heavenly insight into dreams, far exceeding that of the magi, represents the divine superiority of the covenant-people over their heathen lords. The high dignities, even in the world, which he thereby attained, typify the giving of the earth-kingdom at last \"to the people of the saints of the Most High\" (Dan 7:27). Thus Daniel's personal history is the typical foundation of his prophecy. The prophets had to experience in themselves, and in their age, something of what they foretold about future times; just as David felt much of Christ's sufferings in his own person (compare Hos 1:2-11; Hos 2:3). So Jon. 1:1-17, &c. [ROOS]. Hence biographical notices of Daniel and his friends are inserted among his prophecies. The second through twelfth chapters contain the substance of the book, and consist of two parts. The first (the second through seventh chapters) represents the development of the world powers, viewed from a historical point. The second (the eighth through twelfth chapters), their development in relation to Israel, especially in the future preceding Christ's first advent, foretold in the ninth chapter. But prophecy looks beyond the immediate future to the complete fulfilment in the last days, since the individual parts in the organic history of salvation cannot be understood except in connection with the whole. Also Israel looked forward to the Messianic time, not only for spiritual salvation, but also for the visible restoration of the kingdom which even now we too expect. The prophecy which they needed ought therefore to comprise both, and so much of the history of the world as would elapse before the final consummation. The period of Daniel's prophecies, therefore, is that from the downfall of the theocracy at the captivity till its final restoration, yet future--the period of the dominion of the world powers, not set aside by Christ's first coming (Joh 18:36; for, to have taken the earth-kingdom then, would have been to take it from Satan's hands, Mat 4:8-10), but to be superseded by His universal and everlasting kingdom at His second coming (Rev 11:15). Thus the general survey of the development and final destiny of the world powers (the second through seventh chapters) fittingly precedes the disclosures as to the immediate future (the eighth through twelfth chapters). Daniel marks the division by writing the first part in Chaldee, and the second, and the introduction, in Hebrew; the former, referring to the powers of the world, in the language of the then dominant world power under which he lived; the latter, relating to the people of God, in their own language. An interpolator in a later age would have used Hebrew, the language of the ancient prophets throughout, or if anywhere Aramaic, so as to be understood by his contemporaries, he would have used it in the second rather than in the first part as having a more immediate reference to his own times [AUBERLEN]. \n\n\n\nNext: Daniel Chapter 1\n\n","order":27,"numberOfChapters":12,"sha256":"52ffb04ed7fdad0a18e31cb0dd5f7354207dcc9f1eb26ff0a5baf325867e27a4","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/DAN/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"DAN","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":12,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/DAN/12.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"DAN","chapter":12},"totalNumberOfVerses":305},"chapter":{"number":11,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["three kings in Persia--Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes. (Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, and Darius, in Ezr 4:6-7, Ezr 4:24). The Ahasuerus of Esther (see on Dan 9:1) is identified with Xerxes, both in Greek history and in Scripture, appearing proud, self-willed, careless of contravening Persian customs, amorous, facile, and changeable (Dan 11:2). \n\nfourth . . . riches . . . against . . . Grecia--Xerxes, whose riches were proverbial. Persia reached its climax and showed its greatest power in his invasion of Greece, 480 B.C. After his overthrow at Salamis, Persia is viewed as politically dead, though it had an existence. Therefore, Dan 11:3, without noticing Xerxes' successors, proceeds at once to Alexander, under whom, first, the third world kingdom, Grecia, reached its culmination, and assumed an importance as to the people of God. \n\nstir up all--Four years were spent in gathering his army out of all parts of his vast empire, amounting to two millions six hundred and forty-one thousand men. [PRIDEAUX, Connexion, 1.4, 1.410].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["mighty king . . . do according to his will--answering to the he-goat's \"notable horn\" (Dan 8:6-7, Dan 8:21). Alexander invaded Persia 334 B.C., to avenge the wrongs of Greece on Persia for Xerxes' past invasion (as Alexander said in a letter to Darius Codomanus, ARRIAN, Alexander. 2.14.7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["kingdom . . . divided toward . . . four winds--the fourfold division of Alexander's kingdom at his death (Dan 8:8, Dan 8:22), after the battle of Ipsus, 301 B.C. \n\nnot to his posterity--(See on Dan 8:8; Dan 8:22). \n\nnor according to his dominion--None of his successors had so wide a dominion as Alexander himself. \n\nothers besides those--besides Alexander's sons, Hercules by Barsine, Darius daughter, and Alexander by Roxana, who were both slain [MAURER]. Rather, besides the four successors to the four chief divisions of the empire, there will be other lesser chiefs who shall appropriate smaller fragments of the Macedonian empire [JEROME].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Here the prophet leaves Asia and Greece and takes up Egypt and Syria, these being in continual conflict under Alexander's successors, entailing misery on Judea, which lay between the two. Holy Scripture handles external history only so far as it is connected with God's people, Israel [JEROME]. TREGELLES puts a chasm between the fourth and fifth verses, making the transition to the final Antichrist here, answering to the chasm (in his view) at Dan 8:22-23. \n\nking of . . . south--literally, \"of midday\": Egypt (Dan 11:8, Dan 11:42), PTOLEMY Soter, son of Lagus. He took the title \"king,\" whereas Lagus was but \"governor.\" \n\none of his princes--Seleucus, at first a satrap of PTOLEMY Lagus, but from 312 B.C. king of the largest empire after that of Alexander (Syria, Babylon, Media, &c.), and called therefore Nicator, that is, \"conqueror.\" Connect the words thus, \"And one of his (PTOLEMY'S) princes, even he (Seleucus) shall be strong above him\" (above PTOLEMY, his former master).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["in . . . end of years--when the predicted time shall be consummated (Dan 11:13, Margin; Dan 8:17; Dan 12:13). \n\nking's daughter of the south--Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt. The latter, in order to end his war with Antiochus Theus, \"king of the north\" (literally, \"midnight\": the prophetical phrase for the region whence came affliction to Israel, Jer 1:13-15; Joe 2:20), that is, Syria, gave Berenice to Antiochus, who thereupon divorced his former wife, Laodice, and disinherited her son, Seleucus Callinicus. The designation, \"king of the north\" and \"of the south,\" is given in relation to Judea, as the standpoint. Egypt is mentioned by name (Dan 11:8, Dan 11:42), though Syria is not; because the former was in Daniel's time a flourishing kingdom, whereas Syria was then a mere dependency of Assyria and Babylon: an undesigned proof of the genuineness of the Book of Daniel. \n\nagreement--literally, \"rights,\" that is, to put things to rights between the belligerents. \n\nshe shall not retain the power of the arm--She shall not be able to effect the purpose of the alliance, namely, that she should be the mainstay of peace. Ptolemy having died, Antiochus took back Laodice, who then poisoned him, and caused Berenice and her son to be put to death, and raised her own son, Seleucus Nicator, to the throne. \n\nneither shall he stand--The king of Egypt shall not gain his point of setting his line on the throne of Syria. \n\nhis arm--that on which he relied. Berenice and her offspring. \n\nthey that brought her--her attendants from Egypt. \n\nhe that begat her--rather as Margin, \"the child whom she brought forth\" [EWALD]. If English Version (which MAURER approves) be retained, as Ptolemy died a natural death, \"given up\" is not in his case, as in Berenice's, to be understood of giving up to death, but in a general sense, of his plan proving abortive. \n\nhe that strengthened her in these times--Antiochus Theus, who is to attach himself to her (having divorced Laodice) at the times predicted [GEJER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["a branch of her roots . . . in his estate--Ptolemy Euergetes, brother of Berenice, succeeding in the place (Margin) of Philadelphus, avenged her death by overrunning Syria, even to the Euphrates. \n\ndeal against them--He shall deal with the Syrians at his own pleasure. He slew Laodice.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["carry . . . into Egypt their gods, &c.--Ptolemy, on hearing of a sedition in Egypt, returned with forty thousand talents of silver, precious vessels, and twenty-four hundred images, including Egyptian idols, which Cambyses had carried from Egypt into Persia. The idolatrous Egyptians were so gratified, that they named him Euergetes, or \"benefactor.\" \n\ncontinue more years--Ptolemy survived Seleucus four years, reigning in all forty-six years. MAURER translates, \"Then he for several years shall desist from (contending with) the king of the north\" (compare Dan 11:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["come into his kingdom--Egypt: not only with impunity, but with great spoil.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["his sons--the two sons of the king of the north, Seleucus Callinicus, upon his death by a fall from his horse, namely, Seleucus Ceraunus and Antiochus the Great. \n\none shall . . . come--Ceraunus having died, Antiochus alone prosecuted the war with Ptolemy Philopater, Euergetes' son, until he had recovered all the parts of Syria subjugated by Euergetes. \n\npass through--like an \"overflowing\" torrent (Dan 11:22, Dan 11:26, Dan 11:40; Isa 8:8). Antiochus penetrated to Dura (near CÃ&brvbrsarea), where he gave Ptolemy a four months' truce. \n\nreturn--renew the war at the expiration of the truce (so Dan 11:13). \n\neven to his fortress--Ptolemy's; Raphia, a border-fortress of Egypt against incursions by way of Edom and Arabia-PetrÃ&brvbra, near Gaza; here Antiochus was vanquished.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["the king of the south . . . moved with choler--at so great losses, Syria having been wrested from him, and his own kingdom imperilled, though otherwise an indolent man, to which his disasters were owing, as also to the odium of his subjects against him for having murdered his father, mother, and brother, whence in irony they called him Philopater, \"father-lover.\" \n\nhe shall set forth a great multitude--Antiochus, king of Syria, whose force was seventy thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry. \n\nbut . . . multitude . . . given into his hand--into Ptolemy's hands; ten thousand of Antiochus' army were slain, and four thousand made captives.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["when he hath taken away--that is, subdued \"the multitude\" of Antiochus. \n\nheart . . . lifted up--instead of following up his victory by making himself master of the whole of Syria, as he might, he made peace with Antiochus, and gave himself up to licentiousness [POLYBIUS, 87; JUSTIN, 30.4], and profaned the temple of God by entering the holy place [GROTIUS]. \n\nnot be strengthened by it--He shall lose the power gained by his victory through his luxurious indolence.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["return--renew the war. \n\nafter certain years--fourteen years after his defeat at Raphia. Antiochus, after successful campaigns against Persia and India, made war with Ptolemy Epiphanes, son of Philopater, a mere child.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["many stand up against the king of the south--Philip, king of Macedon, and rebels in Egypt itself, combined with Antiochus against Ptolemy. \n\nrobbers of thy people--that is, factious men of the Jews shall exalt themselves, so as to revolt from Ptolemy, and join themselves to Antiochus; the Jews helped Antiochus army with provisions, when on his return from Egypt he besieged the Egyptian garrison left in Jerusalem [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 12:3.3]. \n\nto establish the vision--Those turbulent Jews unconsciously shall help to fulfil the purpose of God, as to the trials which await Judea, according to this vision. \n\nbut they shall fall--Though helping to fulfil the vision, they shall fail in their aim, of making Judea independent.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["king of . . . north--Antiochus the Great. \n\ntake . . . fenced cities--Scopas, the Egyptian general, met Antiochus at Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, and was defeated, and fled to Sidon, a strongly \"fenced city,\" where he was forced to surrender. \n\nchosen people--Egypt's choicest army was sent under Eropus, Menocles, and Damoxenus, to deliver Scopas, but in vain [JEROME].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["he that cometh against him--Antiochus coming against Ptolemy Epiphanes. \n\nglorious land--Judea (Dan 11:41, Dan 11:45; Dan 8:9; Eze 20:6, Eze 20:15). \n\nby his hand shall be consumed--literally, \"perfected,\" that is, completely brought under his sway. JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 12:3.3] shows that the meaning is not, that the Jews should be utterly consumed: for Antiochus favored them for taking his part against Ptolemy, but that their land should be subjected to him [LENGKERKE]. GROTIUS translates, \"shall be perfected by him,\" that is, shall flourish under him. English Version gives a good sense; namely, that Judea was much \"consumed\" or \"desolated\" by being the arena of conflict between the combatants, Syria and Egypt. TREGELLES refers (Dan 11:14), \"robbers of thy people,\" to the Gentiles, once oppressors, attempting to restore the Jews to their land by mere human effort, whereas this is to be effected only by divine interposition: their attempt is frustrated (Dan 11:16) by the wilful king, who makes Judea the scene of his military operations.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["set his face--purpose steadfastly. Antiochus purpose was, however, turned from open assault to wile, by his war with the Romans in his endeavor to extend his kingdom to the limits it had under Seleucus Nicator. \n\nupright one--Jasher, or Jeshurun (Deu 32:15; Isa 44:2); the epithet applied by the Hebrews to their nation. It is here used not in praise; for in Dan 11:14 (see on Dan 11:14) they are called \"robbers,\" or \"men of violence, factious\": it is the general designation of Israel, as having God for their God. Probably it is used to rebuke those who ought to have been God's \"upright ones\" for confederating with godless heathen in acts of violence (the contrast to the term in Dan 11:14 favors this). \n\nthus shall he do--Instead of at once invading Ptolemy's country with his \"whole strength,\" he prepares his way for doing so by the following plan: he gives to Ptolemy Epiphanes his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, promising CÅ“lo-Syria and Judea as a dowry, thus securing his neutrality in the war with Rome: he hoped through his daughter to obtain Syria, Cilicia, and Lycia, and even Egypt itself at last; but Cleopatra favored her husband rather than her father, and so defeated his scheme [JEROME]. \"She shall not stand on his side.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["isles--He \"took many\" of the isles in the Ægean in his war with the Romans, and crossed the Hellespont. \n\nprince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach . . . to cease--Lucius Scipio Asiaticus, the Roman general, by routing Antiochus at Magnesia (190 B.C.), caused the reproach which he offered Rome by inflicting injuries on Rome's allies, to cease. He did it for his own glory. \n\nwithout his own reproach--with untarnished reputation.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Then he shall turn . . . toward . . . his own land--Compelled by Rome to relinquish all his territory west of the Taurus, and defray the expenses of the war, he garrisoned the cities left to him. \n\nstumble . . . not be found--Attempting to plunder the temple of Jupiter at Elymais by night, whether through avarice, or the want of money to pay the tribute imposed by Rome (a thousand talents), he was slain with his soldiers in an insurrection of the inhabitants [JUSTIN, 32.2].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["in his estate--in Antiochus' stead: his successor, Seleucus Philopater, his son. \n\nin the glory of the kingdom--that is, inheriting it by hereditary right. MAURER translates, \"one who shall cause the tax gatherer (Heliodorus) to pass through the glory of the kingdom,\" that is, Judea, \"the glorious land\" (Dan 11:16, Dan 11:41; Dan 8:9). Simon, a Benjamite, in spite against Onias III, the high priest, gave information of the treasures in the Jewish temple; and Seleucus having reunited to Syria CÅ“lo-Syria and Palestine, the dowry formerly given by Antiochus the Great to Cleopatra, Ptolemy's wife, sent Heliodorus to Jerusalem to plunder the temple. This is narrated in 2 Maccabees 3:4, &c. Contrast Zac 9:8, \"No oppressor shall pass through . . . any more.\" \n\nwithin few days . . . destroyed--after a reign of twelve years, which were \"few\" compared with the thirty-seven years of Antiochus' reign. Heliodorus, the instrument of Seleucus' sacrilege, was made by God the instrument of his punishment. Seeking the crown, in the absence at Rome of Seleucus' only son and heir, Demetrius, he poisoned Seleucus. But Antiochus Epiphanes, Seleucus' brother, by the help of Eumenes, king of Pergamos, succeeded to the throne, 175 B.C. \n\nneither in anger, nor in battle--not in a popular outbreak, nor in open battle.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["vile--Antiochus called Epiphanes, that is, \"the illustrious,\" for vindicating the claims of the royal line against Heliodorus, was nicknamed, by a play of sounds, Epimanes, that is, \"the madman,\" for his mad freaks beneath the dignity of a king. He would carouse with the lowest of the people, bathe with them in the public baths, and foolishly jest and throw stones at passers-by [POLYBIUS, 26.10]. Hence, as also for his crafty supplanting of Demetrius, the rightful heir, from the throne, he is termed \"vile.\" \n\nthey shall not give . . . kingdom: but . . . by flatteries--The nation shall not, by a public act, confer the kingdom on him, but he shall obtain it by artifice, \"flattering\" Eumenes and Attalus of Pergamos to help him, and, as he had seen candidates at Rome doing, canvassing the Syrian people high and low, one by one, with embraces [LIVY, 41.20].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["shall they be overflown . . . before him--Antiochus Epiphanes shall invade Egypt with overwhelming forces. \n\nprince of the covenant--Ptolemy Philometer, the son of Cleopatra, Antiochus' sister, who was joined in covenant with him. Ptolemy's guardians, while he was a boy, sought to recover from Epiphanes CÅ“lo-Syria and Palestine, which had been promised by Antiochus the Great as Cleopatra's dowry in marrying Ptolemy Epiphanes. Hence arose the war. Philometer's generals were vanquished, and Pelusium, the key of Egypt, taken by Antiochus, 171 B.C.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["TREGELLES notes three divisions in the history of the \"vile person,\" which is continued to the end of the chapter: (1) His rise (Dan 11:21-22). (2) The time from his making the covenant to the taking away of the daily sacrifice and setting up of the abomination of desolation (Dan 11:23-31). (3) His career of blasphemy, to his destruction (Dan 11:32-45); the latter two periods answering to the \"week\" of years of his \"covenant with many\" (namely, in Israel) (Dan 9:27), and the last being the closing half week of the ninth chapter. But the context so accurately agrees with the relations of Antiochus to Ptolemy that the primary reference seems to be to the \"league\" between them. Antitypically, Antichrist's relations towards Israel are probably delineated. Compare Dan 8:11, Dan 8:25, with Dan 11:22 here, \"prince of the covenant.\" \n\nwork deceitfully--Feigning friendship to young Ptolemy, as if he wished to order his kingdom for him, he took possession of Memphis and all Egypt (\"the fattest places,\" Dan 11:34) as far as Alexandria. \n\nwith a small people--At first, to throw off suspicion, his forces were small.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["peaceably--literally, \"unexpectedly\"; under the guise of friendship he seized Ptolemy Philometer. \n\nhe shall do that which his fathers have not done--His predecessors, kings of Syria, had always coveted Egypt, but in vain: he alone made himself master of it. \n\nscatter among them . . . prey--among his followers (1 Maccabees 1:19). \n\nforecast his devices against . . . strongholds--He shall form a studied scheme for making himself master of the Egyptian fortresses. He gained them all except Alexandria, which successfully resisted him. Retaining to himself Pelusium, he retired to Judea, where, in revenge for the joy shown by the Jews at the report of his death, which led them to a revolt, he subdued Jerusalem by storm or stratagem. \n\nfor a time--His rage shall not be for ever; it is but for a time limited by God. CALVIN makes \"for a time\" in antithesis to \"unexpectedly,\" in the beginning of the verse. He suddenly mastered the weaker cities: he had to \"forecast his plans\" more gradually (\"for a time\") as to how to gain the stronger fortresses.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["A fuller detail of what was summarily stated (Dan 11:22-24). This is the first of Antiochus' three (Dan 11:29) open invasions of Egypt. \n\nagainst the king of the south--against Ptolemy Philometer. Subsequently, Ptolemy Physcon (the Gross), or Euergetes II, was made king by the Egyptians, as Ptolemy Philometer was in Antiochus hands. \n\ngreat army--as distinguished from the \"small people\" (Dan 11:23) with which he first came. This was his first open expedition; he was emboldened by success to it. Antiochus \"entered Egypt with an overwhelming multitude, with chariots, elephants, and cavalry\" (1 Maccabees 1:17). \n\nstirred up--by the necessity, though naturally indolent. \n\nnot stand--Philometer was defeated. \n\nthey shall forecast, &c.--His own nobles shall frame treacherous \"devices\" against him (see Dan 11:26). Euloeus and Lenoeus maladministered his affairs. Antiochus, when checked at last at Alexandria, left Ptolemy Philometer at Memphis as king, pretending that his whole object was to support Philometer's claims against the usurper Physcon.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["they that feed of . . . his meat--those from whom he might naturally have looked for help, his intimates and dependents (Psa 41:9; Joh 13:18); his ministers and guardians. \n\nhis army shall overflow--Philometer's army shall be dissipated as water. The phrase is used of overflowing numbers, usually in a victorious sense, but here in the sense of defeat, the very numbers which ordinarily ensure victory, hastening the defeat through mismanagement. \n\nmany shall fall down slain--(1 Maccabees 1:18, \"many fell wounded to death\"). Antiochus, when he might have slain all in the battle near Pelusium, rode around and ordered the enemy to be taken alive, the fruit of which policy was, he soon gained Pelusium and all Egypt [DIODORUS SICULUS, 26.77].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["both . . . to do mischief--each to the other. \n\nspeak lies at one table--They shall, under the semblance of intimacy, at Memphis try to deceive one another (see on Dan 11:3; Dan 11:25). \n\nit shall not prosper--Neither of them shall carry his point at this time. \n\nyet the end shall be--\"the end\" of the contest between them is reserved for \"the time appointed\" (Dan 11:29-30).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["(1 Maccabees 1:19, 20, &c.). \n\nagainst the holy covenant--On his way back to Syria, he attacked Jerusalem, the metropolis of Jehovah's covenant-people, slew eighty thousand, took forty thousand prisoners, and sold forty thousand as slaves (2 Maccabees 5:5-14). \n\nhe shall do exploits--He shall effect his purpose. Guided by Menelaus, the high priest, he entered the sanctuary with blasphemies, took away the gold and silver vessels, sacrificed swine on the altar, and sprinkled broth of the flesh through the temple (2 Maccabees 5:15-21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["At the time appointed--\"the time\" spoken of in Dan 11:27. \n\nreturn--his second open invasion of Egypt. Ptolemy Philometer, suspecting Antiochus' designs with Physcon, hired mercenaries from Greece. Whereupon Antiochus advanced with a fleet and an army, demanding the cession to him of Cyprus, Pelusium, and the country adjoining the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile. \n\nit shall not be as the former--not successful as the former expedition. Popilius Loenas, the Roman ambassador, met him at Eleusis, four miles from Alexandria, and presented him the decree of the senate; on Antiochus replying that he would consider what he was to do, Popilius drew a line round him with a rod and said, \"I must have a reply to give to the senate before you leave this circle.\" Antiochus submitted, and retired from Egypt; and his fleets withdrew from Cyprus. \n\nor as the latter--that mentioned in Dan 11:42-43 [TREGELLES]. Or, making this the third expedition, the sense is \"not as the first or as the second\" expeditions [PISCATOR]. Rather \"not as the former, so shall be this latter\" expedition [GROTIUS].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["ships of Chittim--the Roman ambassadors arriving in Macedonian Grecian vessels (see on Jer 2:10). Chittim, properly Cyprian, so called from a PhÅ“nician colony in Cyprus; then the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean in general. \n\ngrieved--humbled and dispirited through fear of Rome. \n\nindignation against the holy covenant--Indignant that meantime God's worship had been restored at Jerusalem, he gives vent to his wrath at the check given him by Rome, on the Jews. \n\nintelligence with them that forsake the . . . covenant--namely, with the apostates in the nation (1 Maccabees 1:11-15). Menelaus and other Jews instigated the king against their religion and country, learning from Greek philosophy that all religions are good enough to keep the masses in check. These had cast off circumcision and the religion of Jehovah for Greek customs. Antiochus, on his way home, sent Apollonius (167 B.C.) with twenty-two thousand to destroy Jerusalem, two years after its capture by himself. Apollonius slew multitudes, dismantled and pillaged the city. They then, from a fortress which they built commanding the temple, fell on and slew the worshippers; so that the temple service was discontinued. Also, Antiochus decreed that all, on pain of death, should conform to the Greek religion, and the temple was consecrated to Jupiter Olympius. Identifying himself with that god, with fanatical haughtiness he wished to make his own worship universal (1 Maccabees 1:41; 2 Maccabees 6:7). This was the gravest peril which ever heretofore threatened revealed religion, the holy people, and the theocracy on earth, for none of the previous world rulers had interfered with the religious worship of the covenant-people, when subject to them (Dan 4:31-34; Dan 6:27-28; Ezr 1:2, Ezr 1:4; Ezr 7:12; Neh 2:18). Hence arose the need of such a forewarning of the covenant-people as to him--so accurate, that PORPHYRY, the adversary of revelation, saw it was hopeless to deny its correspondence with history, but argued from its accuracy that it must have been written subsequent to the event. But as Messianic events are foretold in Daniel, the Jews, the adversaries of Jesus, would never have forged the prophecies which confirm His claims. The ninth chapter was to comfort the faithful Jews, in the midst of the \"abominations\" against \"the covenant,\" with the prospect of Messiah who would \"confirm the covenant.\" He would show by bringing salvation, and yet abolishing sacrifices, that the temple service which they so grieved after, was not absolutely necessary; thus the correspondence of phraseology would suggest comfort (compare Dan 9:27 with Dan 11:30-31).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["arms--namely, of the human body; not weapons; human forces. \n\nthey--Antiochus' hosts confederate with the apostate Israelites; these latter attain the climax of guilt, when they not only, as before, \"forsake the covenant\" (Dan 11:30), but \"do wickedly against\" it (Dan 11:32), turning complete heathens. Here Antiochus' actings are described in language which reach beyond him the type to Antichrist the antitype [JEROME] (just as in Psa. 72:1-20 many things are said of Solomon the type, which are only applicable to Christ the Antitype); including perhaps Rome, Mohammed, and the final personal Antichrist. SIR ISAAC NEWTON refers the rest of the chapter from this verse to the Romans, translating, \"after him arms (that is, the Romans) shall stand up\"; at the very time that Antiochus left Egypt, the Romans conquered Macedon, thus finishing the reign of Daniel's third beast; so here the prophet naturally proceeds to the fourth beast. JEROME'S view is simpler; for the narrative seems to continue the history of Antiochus, though with features only in type applicable to him, fully to Antichrist. \n\nsanctuary of strength--not only naturally a place of strength, whence it held out to the last against the besiegers, but chiefly the spiritual stronghold of the covenant-people (Psa 48:1-3, Psa 48:12-14). Apollonius \"polluted\" it with altars to idols and sacrifices of swine's flesh, after having \"taken away the daily sacrifice\" (see on Dan 8:11). \n\nplace . . . abomination that maketh desolate--that is, that pollutes the temple (Dan 8:12-13). Or rather, \"the abomination of the desolater,\" Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Maccabees 1:29, 37-49). Compare Dan 9:27, wherein the antitypical desolating abomination of Rome (the eagle standard, the bird of Jupiter, sacrificed to by Titus' soldiers within the sacred precincts, at the destruction of Jerusalem), of Mohammed and of the final Antichrist, is foretold. 1 Maccabees 1:54, uses the very phrase, \"the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred forty-fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation on the altar\"; namely, an idol-altar and image of Jupiter Olympius, erected upon Jehovah's altar of burnt offerings. \"Abomination\" is the common name for an idol in the Old Testament. The Roman emperor Adrian's erection of a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus where the temple of God had stood, A.D. 132; also the erection of the Mohammedan mosque of Omar in the same place (it is striking, Mohammedanism began to prevail in A.D. 610, only about three years of the time when Popery assumed the temporal power); and the idolatry of the Church of Rome in the spiritual temple, and the final blasphemy of the personal Antichrist in the literal temple (Th2 2:4) may all be antitypically referred to here under Antiochus the type, and the Old Testament Antichrist.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["(1 Maccabees 1:52). \n\ncorrupt--seduce to apostasy. \n\nby flatteries--promises of favor. \n\npeople that . . . know their God--the Maccabees and their followers (1 Maccabees 1:62, 63).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["they that understand--who know and keep the truth of God (Isa 11:2). \n\ninstruct many--in their duty to God and the law, not to apostatize. \n\nyet they shall fall--as Eleazar (2 Maccabees 6:18, &c.). They shall be sorely persecuted, even to death (Heb 11:35-37; 2 Maccabees 6, 7). Their enemies took advantage of the Sabbath to slay them on the day when they would not fight. TREGELLES thinks, from comparison with Dan 11:35, it is the people who \"fall,\" not those of understanding. But Dan 11:35 makes the latter \"fall,\" not an unmeaning repetition; in Dan 11:33 they fall (die) by persecution; in Dan 11:35 they fall (spiritually) for a time by their own weakness. \n\nflame--in caves, whither they had retired to keep the Sabbath. Antiochus caused some to be roasted alive (2 Maccabees 7:3-5). \n\nmany days--rather, \"certain days,\" as in Dan 8:27. JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 12:7.6,7] tells us the persecution lasted for three years (1 Maccabees 1:59; 4:54; 2 Maccabees 10:1-7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["a little help--The liberty obtained by the Maccabean heroes for the Jews was of but short duration. They soon fell under the Romans and Herodians, and ever since every attempt to free them from Gentile rule has only aggravated their sad lot. The period of the world times (Gentile rule) is the period of depression of the theocracy, extending from the exile to the millennium [ROOS]. The more immediate reference seems to be, the forces of Mattathias and his five sons were originally few (1 Maccabees 2:1-5). \n\nmany shall cleave to them--as was the case under Judas Maccabeus, who was thus able successfully to resist Antiochus. \n\nwith flatteries--Those who had deserted the Jewish cause in persecution, now, when success attended the Jewish arms, joined the Maccabean standard, for example, Joseph, the son of Zecharias, Azarias, &c. (1 Maccabees 5:55-57; 2 Maccabees 12:40; 13:21). MAURER explains it, of those who through fear of the Maccabees' severity against apostates joined them, though ready, if it suited their purpose, to desert them (1 Maccabees 2:44; 3:58).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["to try them--the design of affliction. Image from metals tried with fire. \n\nto purge--Even in the elect there are dregs which need to be purged out (Pe1 1:7). Hence they are allowed to fall for a time; not finally (Ch2 32:31; Luk 22:31). Image from wheat cleared of its chaff by the wind. \n\nmake . . . white--image from cloth (Rev 7:9). \n\nto . . . time of . . . end--God will not suffer His people to be persecuted without limitation (Co1 10:13). The godly are to wait patiently for \"the end\" of \"the time\" of trial; \"for it is (to last) yet for a time appointed\" by God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["The wilful king here, though primarily Antiochus, is antitypically and mainly Antichrist, the seventh head of the seven-headed and ten-horned beast of Rev. 13:1-18, and the \"beast\" of Armageddon (Rev 16:13, Rev 16:16; Rev 19:19). Some identify him with the revived French emperorship, the eighth head of the beast (Rev 17:11), who is to usurp the kingly, as the Pope has the priestly, dignity of Christ--the false Messiah of the Jews, who will \"plant his tabernacle between the seas in the holy mountain,\" \"exalting himself above every god\" (Th2 2:4; Rev 13:5-6). This last clause only in part holds good of Antiochus; for though he assumed divine honors, identifying himself with Jupiter Olympius, yet it was for that god he claimed them; still it applies to him as the type. \n\nspeak marvellous things against . . . God of gods--so Dan 7:25, as to the \"little horn,\" which seemingly identifies the two (compare Dan 8:25). Antiochus forbade the worship of Jehovah by a decree \"marvellous\" for its wickedness: thus he was a type of Antichrist. Compare Dan 7:8, \"a mouth speaking great things.\" \n\nindignation . . . accomplished--God's visitation of wrath on the Jews for their sins (Dan 8:19). \n\nthat . . . determined-- (Dan 9:26-27; Dan 10:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["Neither . . . regard . . . the desire of women--(Compare Eze 24:16, Eze 24:18). The wife, as the desire of man's eyes, is the symbol of the tenderest relations (Sa2 1:26). Antiochus would set at naught even their entreaties that he should cease from his attack on Jehovah's worship [POLANUS]. MAURER refers it to Antiochus' attack on the temple of the Syrian Venus, worshipped by women (1 Maccabees 6:1, &c.; 2 Maccabees 1:13). NEWTON refers it to Rome's \"forbidding to marry.\" ELLIOTT rightly makes the antitypical reference be to Messiah. Jewish women desired to be mothers with a view to Him, the promised seed of the woman (Gen 30:23; Luk 1:25, Luk 1:28). \n\nnor regard any god-- (Th2 2:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["God of forces--probably Jupiter Capitolinus, to whom Antiochus began to erect a temple at Antioch [LIVY, 41.20]. Translate, \"He shall honor the god of fortresses on his basis,\" that is, the base of the statue. NEWTON translates, \"And the god 'Mahuzzim' (guardians, that is, saints adored as 'protectors' in the Greek and Roman churches) shall he honor.\" \n\nhonour with gold, &c.--Compare Rev 17:4 as to Antiochus' antitype, Antichrist.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["NEWTON translates, \"to be defenders of Mahuzzim (the monks and priests who uphold saint worship), together with the strange god whom he shall acknowledge, he shall multiply honor.\" English Version is better: He shall do (exploits) in the most strongholds (that is, shall succeed against them) with a strange god (under the auspices of a god which he worshipped not before, namely, Jupiter Capitolinus, whose Worship he imported into his empire from Rome). Antiochus succeeded against Jerusalem, Sidon, Pelusium, Memphis. \n\ncause them--Antiochus \"caused\" his followers and the apostates \"to rule over many\" Jews, having \"divided their land\" (Judea), \"for gain\" (that is, as a reward for their compliance).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":40,"content":["The difficulty of reconciling this with Antiochus' history is that no historian but PORPHYRY mentions an expedition of his into Egypt towards the close of his reign. This Dan 11:40, therefore, may be a recapitulation summing up the facts of the first expedition to Egypt (171-170 B.C.), in Dan 11:22, Dan 11:25; and Dan 11:41, the former invasion of Judea, in Dan 11:28; Dan 11:42-43, the second and third invasions of Egypt (169 and 168 B.C.) in Dan 11:23-24, Dan 11:29-30. AUBERLEN takes rather PORPHYRY'S statement, that Antiochus, in the eleventh year of his reign (166-165 B.C.), invaded Egypt again, and took Palestine on his way. The \"tidings\" (Dan 11:44) as to the revolt of tributary nations then led him to the East. PORPHYRY'S statement that Antiochus starting from Egypt took Arad in Judah, and devastated all PhÅ“nicia, agrees with Dan 11:45; then he turned to check Artaxias, king of Armenia. He died in the Persian town Tabes, 164 B.C., as both POLYBIUS and PORPHYRY agree. Doubtless, antitypically, the final Antichrist, and its predecessor Mohammed, are intended, to whom the language may be more fully applicable than to Antiochus the type. The Saracen Arabs \"of the south\" \"pushed at\" the Greek emperor Heraclius, and deprived him of Egypt and Syria. But the Turks of \"the north\" not merely pushed at, but destroyed the Greek empire; therefore more is said of them than of the Saracens. Their \"horsemen\" are specified, being their chief strength. Their standards still are horse tails. Their \"ships,\" too, often gained the victory over Venice, the great naval power of Europe in that day. They \"overflowed\" Western Asia, and then \"passed over\" into Europe, fixing their seat of empire at Constantinople under Mohammed II [NEWTON].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":41,"content":["Antiochus, according to PORPHYRY, marching against Ptolemy, though he turned from his course to wreak his wrath on the Jews, did not meddle with Edom, Moab, and Ammon on the side of Judea. In 1 Maccabees 4:61; 5:3; &c., it is stated that he used their help in crushing the Jews, of whom they were the ancient enemies. Compare Isa 11:14, as to Israel's future retribution, just as the Maccabees made war on them as the friends of Antiochus (1 Maccabees 5:1-68). Antitypically, the Turks under Selim entered Jerusalem on their way to Egypt, and retain \"the glorious land\" of Palestine to this day. But they never could conquer the Arabs, who are akin to Edom, Moab, and Ammon (Gen 16:12). So in the case of the final Antichrist.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":42,"content":["Egypt . . . Libyans . . . Ethiopians--The latter two, being the allies of the first, served under Antiochus when he conquered Egypt. Antitypically, Egypt, though it held out long under the Mamelukes, in A.D. 1517 fell under the Turks. Algiers, Tunis, and other parts of Africa, are still under them. \n\nat his steps--following him (Exo 11:8, Margin; Jdg 4:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":44,"content":["tidings out of the east and out of the north--Artaxias, king of Armenia, his vassal, had revolted in the north, and Arsaces, leader of the Parthians, in the east (1 Maccabees 3:10, &c., 1 Maccabees 3:37; TACITUS, Histories, 5.8). In 147 B.C. Antiochus went on the expedition against them, on the return from which he died. \n\ngreat fury--at the Jews, on account of their successes under Judas Maccabeus, whence he desired to replenish his treasury with means to prosecute the war with them; also at Artaxias and Arsaces, and their respective followers. DE BURGH makes the \"tidings\" which rouse his fury, to be concerning the Jews' restoration; such may be the antitypical reference.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":45,"content":["plant . . . between the seas--the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. \n\ntabernacles of . . . palace--his palace-like military tents, such as Oriental princes travel with. See on Dan 11:40, as to the time of Antiochus' attack on Judea, and his subsequent \"end\" at Tabes, which was caused by chagrin both at hearing that his forces under Lysias were overcome by the Jews, and at the failure of his expedition against the temple of Elymais (2 Maccabees 9:5). \n\nholy mountain--Jerusalem and Mount Zion. The desolation of the sanctuary by Antiochus, and also the desecration of the consecrated ground round Jerusalem by the idolatrous Roman ensigns, as also by the Mohammedan mosque, and, finally, by the last Antichrist, are referred to. So the last Antichrist is to sit upon \"the mount of the congregation\" (Isa 14:13), but \"shall be brought down to hell\" (compare Note, see on Dan 7:26; Th2 2:8).\n\nCompare Dan 12:4, Dan 12:13; as Dan 12:6-7 refer to Dan 7:25, that is, to the time of Antichrist, so the subsequent Dan 12:8-12 treat of the time of Antiochus (compare Dan 12:11 with Dan 11:31), thus putting together in one summary view the two great periods of distress. The political resurrection of the Jews under the Maccabees is the starting-point of transition to the literal resurrection about to follow the destruction of Antichrist by Christ's coming in glory. The language passes here from the nearer to the more remote event, to which alone it is fully applicable.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Daniel Chapter 12\n\n"]}],"introduction":"This chapter is an enlargement of the eighth: THE OVERTHROW OF PERSIA BY GRECIA: THE FOUR DIVISIONS OF ALEXANDER'S KINGDOM: CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE KINGS OF THE SOUTH AND OF THE NORTH, THE PTOLEMIES AND SELEUCIDÆ: ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES. (Dan. 11:1-45)\n\nI--the angel (Dan 10:18). \n\nfirst year of Darius--Cyaxares II; the year of the conquest of Babylon (Dan 5:31). Cyrus, who wielded the real power, though in name subordinate to Darius, in that year promulgated the edict for the restoration of the Jews, which Daniel was at the time praying for (Dan 9:1-2, Dan 9:21, Dan 9:23). \n\nstood--implying promptness in helping (Psa 94:16). \n\nstrengthen him--namely, Michael; even as Michael (Dan 10:21, \" strengtheneth himself with me\") helped the angel, both joining their powers in behalf of Israel [ROSENMULLER]. Or, Darius, the angel \"confirming him\" in his purpose of kindness to Israel.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/DAN/11.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"DAN","chapter":11},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/DAN/12.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"DAN","chapter":12},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/DAN/10.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"DAN","chapter":10},"numberOfVerses":43}