Part 574 (1/2)

Michael your prince... The guardian general of the church of G.o.d.

Daniel Chapter 11

The angel declares to Daniel many things to come, with regard to the Persian and Grecian kings: more especially with regard to Antiochus as a figure of Antichrist.

11:1. And from the first year of Darius, the Mede, I stood up, that he might be strengthened, and confirmed.

11:2. And now I will shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be enriched exceedingly above them all: and when he shall be grown mighty by his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece.

Three kings... Viz., Cambyses, Smerdes Magus, and Darius, the son of Hystaspes.-Ibid. The fourth... Xerxes.

11:3. But there shall rise up a strong king, and shall rule with great power: and he shall do what he pleaseth.

A strong king... Alexander.

11:4. And when he shall come to his height, his kingdom shall be broken, and it shall be divided towards the four winds of the heaven: but not to his posterity, nor according to his pwoer with wheich he ruled. For his kingdom shall be rent in pieces, even for strangers, besides these.

11:5. And the king of the south shall be strengthened, and one of his princes shall prevail over him, and he shall rule with great power: for his dominions shall be great.

The king of the south... Ptolemeus the son of Lagus, king of Egypt, which lies south of Jerusalem.-Ibid. One of his princes... that is, one of Alexander's princes, shall prevail over him: that is, shall be stronger than the king of Egypt. He speaks of Seleucus Nicator, king of Asia and Syria, whose successors are here called the kings of the north, because their dominions lay to the north in respect to Jerusalem.

11:6. And after the end of years they shall be in league together: and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make friends.h.i.+p, but she shall not obtain the strength of the arm, neither shall her seed stand: and she shall be given up, and her young men that brought her, and they that strengthened her in these times.

The daughter of the king of the south... Viz., Berenice, daughter of Ptolemeus Philadelphus, given in marriage to Antiochus Theos, grandson of Seleucus.

11:7. And a plant of the bud of her roots shall stand up: and he shall come with an army, and shall enter into the province of the king of the north: and he shall abuse them, and shall prevail.

A plant, etc... Ptolemeus Evergetes, the son of Philadelphus.

11:8. And he shall also carry away captive into Egypt their G.o.ds, and their graven things, and their precious vessels of gold and silver: he shall prevail aginst the king of the north.

The king of the north... Seleucus Callinicus.

11:9. And the king of the south shall enter into the kingdom, and shall return to his own land.

11:10. And his sons shall be provoked, and they shall a.s.semble a mult.i.tude of great forces: and he shall come with haste like a flood: and he shall return, and be stirred up, and he shall join battle with his force.

His sons... Seleucus Ceraunius, and Antiochus the Great, the sons of Callinicus.-Ibid. He shall come... Viz., Antiochus the Great.

11:11. And the king of the south being provoked, shall go forth, and shall fight against the king of the north, and shall prepare an exceeding great mult.i.tude, and a mult.i.tude shall be given into his hands.

The king of the south... Ptolemeus Philopator, son of Evergetes.

11:12. And he shall take a mult.i.tude, and his heart shall be lifted up, and he shall cast down many thousands: but he shall not prevail.

11:13. For the king of the north shall return, and shall prepare a mult.i.tude much greater than before: and in the end of times, and years, he shall come in haste with a great army, and much riches.

11:14. And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the south, and the children of prevaricators of thy people shall lift up themselves to fulfil the vision, and they shall fall.

11:15. And the king of the north shall come, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take the best fenced cit.i.ts: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, and his chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and they shall not have strength.