Part 574 (2/2)

11:16. And he shall come upon him, and do according to his pleasure, and there shall be none to stand against his face: and he shall stand in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed by his hand.

He shall come upon him... Viz., Antiochus shall come upon the king of the south.-Ibid. The glorious land... Judea.

11:17. And he shall set his face to come to possess all his kingdom, and he shall make upright conditions with him: and he shall give him a daughter of women, to overthrow it: and she shall not stand, neither shall she be for him.

All his kingdom... Viz., all the kingdom of Ptolemeus Epiphanes, son of Philopator.-Ibid. A daughter of women... That is, a most beautiful woman, viz., his daughter Cleopatra.-Ibid. To overthrow it... Viz., the kingdom of Epiphanes: but his policy shall not succeed; for Cleopatra shall take more to heart the interest of her husband, than that of her father.

11:18. And he shall turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: and he shall cause the prince of his reproach to cease, and his reproach shall be turned upon him.

The prince of his reproach... Seipio the Roman general, called the prince of his reproach, because he overthrew Antiochus, and obliged him to submit to very dishonourable terms, before he would cease from the war.

11:19. And he shall turn his face to the empire of his own land, and he shall stumble, and fall, ans shall not be found.

11:20. And there shall stand up in his place one most vile, and unworthy of kingly honour: and in a few days he shall be destroyed, not in rage nor in battle.

One most vile... Seleucus Philopator, who sent Heliodorus to plunder the temple: and was shortly after slain by the same Heliodorus.

11:21. And there shall stand up in his place one despised, and the kingly honour shall not be given him: and he shall come privately, and shall obtain the kingdom by fraud.

One despised... Viz., Antiochus Epiphanes, who at first was despised and not received for king. What is here said of this prince, is accommodated by St. Jerome and others to Antichrist; of whom this Antiochus was a figure.

11:22. And the arms of the fighter shall be overcome before his face, and shall be broken: yea, also the prince of the covenant.

Of the fighter... That is, of them that shall oppose him, and shall fight against him.-Ibid. The prince of the covenant... or, of the league. The chief of them that conspired against him: or the king of Egypt his most powerful adversary.

11:23. And after friends.h.i.+ps, he will deal deceitfully with him: and he shall go up, and shall overcome with a small people.

11:24. And he shall enter into rich and plentiful cities: and he shall do that which his fathers never did, nor his fathers' fathers: he shall scatter their spoils, and their prey, and their riches, and shall forecast devices against the best fenced places: and this until a time.

11:25. And his strength, and his heart, shall be stirred up aginst the king of the south, with a great army: and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with many and very strong succours: and they shall not stand, for they shall form designs against him.

The king... Ptolemeus Philometor.

11:26. And they that eat bread with him, shall destroy him, and his army shall be overthrown: and many shall fall down slain.

11:27. And the heart of the two kings shall be to do evil, and they shall speak lies at one table, and they shall not prosper: because as yet the end is unto another time.

11:28. And he shall return into his land with much riches: and his heart shall be aginst the holy covenant, and he shall succeed, and shall return into his own land.

11:29. At the time appointed he shall return, and he shall come to the south, but the latter time shall not be like the former.

11:30. And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and shall return, and shall have indignation against thecovenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall returnm, and shall devise against them that haave forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary.

The galleys and the Romans... Popilius, and the other Roman amba.s.sadors, who came in galleys, and obliged him to depart from Egypt.

11:31. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice: and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation.

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