Daniel 11:2-35 • Conflicts between The Kings of the South and the North

Steve Schott
Jun 19
11 min read

► Chapter 11, and for that matter chapter 12 as well, are a continuation of the episode in Daniel's life that started in chapter 10.

→ Daniel was burdened in the 3rd year of the reign of Cyrus in regards to (as is speculated on by several commentators) the conditions being faced by those who had returned to Jerusalem as permitted by Cyrus.

→ This permission, which actually was more like a mandate, is documented in Ezra 1:1-4 and 2 Chronicles 36:22-23, where those texts tell us that "in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia", Cyrus not only released the Jewish people to return to Israel, but he also stated that God "has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem...". Historically we know this event happened in 539BC.

→ In part of chapter 10, Daniel is visited by an unnamed angelic visitor, assumed to be Gabriel, who dialogues with Daniel, and basically tells him that he's been trying to get to Daniel for 21 days, but had been held up by the "prince of Persia (Daniel 10:20)", whom most commentators believe to be either Satan himself, or one of his minions.

→ And then the angel tells Daniel in 11:1, ¹ “In the first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him.", starting his message that he will now deliver to Daniel.

► Daniel 11:2-35 →

Four Future Persian Kings

² And now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them; as soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece.

► So he starts off by telling Daniel, that after Darius/Cyrus there will be 4 more Persian kings before there is another significant regime change.

→ It was discussed in a previous post about how we don't really know who Darius is specifically.

• We do know he's not Darius I who won't be in power until 522BC.

• We discussed that he might be an official representing Cyrus until he can get there.

• We also mentioned that Darius, which means "royal one", could have been a the Median title for Cyrus, the Persian.

→ We do know who those Persian kings are...

• Cambyses - 530-522BC.

• Bardiya (also known as Pseudo-Smerdis) - 522BC.

• Darius I (as previously mentioned) - 522-486BC.

• Xerxes I (Ahasuerus - Esther 1:1-2) - 486-465BC.

♦ Xerxes attempted unsuccessfully to conquer Greece in 480BC.

A Mighty King of Greece

³ And a mighty king will arise, and he will rule with great authority and do as he pleases. ⁴ But as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four points of the compass, though not to his own descendants, nor according to his authority which he wielded, for his sovereignty will be uprooted and given to others besides them.

► This "mighty king" is believed to have been Alexander the Great, who reigned from 336-323BC. He became king when he was 20 years old.

► He conquered the Medo-Persians in 331-330BC when he was about 25 years old.

► He died in Babylon in 323BC when he was about 32 or 33 years old.

► Since he left no heirs to take his throne, the kingdom was eventually divided into 4 sections to be ruled by some of his generals...

1) Cassander → Macedonia

2) Lysimachus → Thrace and Asia Minor

3) Seleucus → Syria and Babylonia

4) Ptolemy → Egypt and Arabia

The Kings of Syria ("King of the North") and Egypt ("King of the South")

An alliance between Syria and Egypt

https://soniclight.com/tcon/notes/html/daniel/daniel.htm#2-the-near-future-112-35

⁵ “Then the king of the South will grow strong, along with one of his princes who will gain ascendancy over him and obtain dominion; his domain will be a great dominion indeed. ⁶ After some years they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the South will come to the king of the North to carry out a peaceful arrangement. But she will not retain her position of power, nor will he remain with his power, but she will be given up, along with those who brought her in and the one who sired her as well as he who supported her in those times.

► As shown in the chart, the "king of the South" (or kingdoms) would be the Ptolemies, and the area they control is Egypt and Arabia. This would include modern day Israel.

► The "king of the North" would be the Seleucids, and they would control Syria and Babylonia.

► The "daughter of the king of the South"...

► "Berenice, daughter of Egypt’s Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 B.C.), married Syria’s King Antiochus II Theos (261–246 B.C.). The latter part of the verse refers to the political advantage they hoped the alliance would produce. Antiochus divorced his wife to marry Berenice. Later that divorced wife murdered Berenice, her baby son, and even Antiochus by poisoning him. Thus she brought her own son, Seleucus II Callinicus, to the throne."¹

Egypt defeats Syria

⁷ But one of the descendants of her line will arise in his place, and he will come against their army and enter the fortress of the king of the North, and he will deal with them and display great strength. ⁸ Also their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold he will take into captivity to Egypt, and he on his part will refrain from attacking the king of the North for some years. ⁹ Then the latter will enter the realm of the king of the South, but will return to his own land.

¹⁰ “His sons will mobilize and assemble a multitude of great forces; and one of them will keep on coming and overflow and pass through, that he may again wage war up to his very fortress. ¹¹ The king of the South will be enraged and go forth and fight with the king of the North. Then the latter will raise a great multitude, but that multitude will be given into the hand of the former. ¹² When the multitude is carried away, his heart will be lifted up, and he will cause tens of thousands to fall; yet he will not prevail.

► When the alliance didn't work, then Egypt attacked and defeated Syria.

Syria defeats Egypt

¹³ For the king of the North will again raise a greater multitude than the former, and after an interval of some years he will press on with a great army and much equipment.

¹⁴ “Now in those times many will rise up against the king of the South; the violent ones among your people will also lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they will fall down. ¹⁵ Then the king of the North will come, cast up a siege ramp and capture a well-fortified city; and the forces of the South will not stand their ground, not even their choicest troops, for there will be no strength to make a stand. ¹⁶ But he who comes against him will do as he pleases, and no one will be able to withstand him; he will also stay for a time in the Beautiful Land, with destruction in his hand.

► Then in response, Syria attacked and defeated Egypt.

A stalemate between Syria and Egypt

¹⁷ He will set his face to come with the power of his whole kingdom, bringing with him a proposal of peace which he will put into effect; he will also give him the daughter of women to ruin it. But she will not take a stand for him or be on his side. ¹⁸ Then he will turn his face to the coastlands and capture many. But a commander will put a stop to his scorn against him; moreover, he will repay him for his scorn. ¹⁹ So he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and be found no more.

²⁰ “Then in his place one will arise who will send an oppressor through the Jewel of his kingdom; yet within a few days he will be shattered, though not in anger nor in battle.

► While technically there was peace, there were still shenanigans going on to create an imbalance in the power struggle...

► "he will also give him the daughter of women to ruin it."

"Antiochus, feeling pressure from Rome (fourth empire, 2:40; 7:7) to make peace with Egypt, offered his daughter Cleopatra to marry Ptolemy V Epiphanes (ca. 192 B.C.). The Syrian thus hoped his daughter would spy to help him to “destroy” or weaken Egypt and bring it under his power. Cleopatra, instead of helping her father, favored her Egyptian mate."²

An Evil Syrian King

His Craftiness

²¹ In his place a despicable person will arise, on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred, but he will come in a time of tranquility and seize the kingdom by intrigue. ²² The overflowing forces will be flooded away before him and shattered, and also the prince of the covenant. ²³ After an alliance is made with him he will practice deception, and he will go up and gain power with a small force of people.

► We've reached a point in our dialogue where we are going to deal with one specific, historical, individual. And while normally some of what we are going to hear sounds like it would belong to the antichrist, who will be discussed in the last part of chapter 11, this is not who we will be talking about in this section.

► Sometimes in Scripture, we find prophetic statements that have both a "near" and a "far" fulfillment. And this is one of those passages. In today's passage, we will be talking about a person who was also discussed in chapter 8:9-14, & 8:23-26, and he is known as Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He ruled over Israel from 175BC to the time of his death in 164BC.

► He was not the rightful king, but through "intrigue" set himself up as the king. And in that role he defeated not only the Egyptians, but he also had the leader of Israel, a person named Onias III, murdered.

His Conquests

²⁴ In a time of tranquility he will enter the richest parts of the realm, and he will accomplish what his fathers never did, nor his ancestors; he will distribute plunder, booty and possessions among them, and he will devise his schemes against strongholds, but only for a time.

► He then basically bought his friends with the plunder that he stole from Egypt.

His Confrontations with Egypt

²⁵ He will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the South with a large army; so the king of the South will mobilize an extremely large and mighty army for war; but he will not stand, for schemes will be devised against him. ²⁶ Those who eat his choice food will destroy him, and his army will overflow, but many will fall down slain. ²⁷ As for both kings, their hearts will be intent on evil, and they will speak lies to each other at the same table; but it will not succeed, for the end is still to come at the appointed time.

► Somehow, Antiochus was able to twist the situation to allow for two different leaders in Egypt to rule concurrently over different areas of Egypt, with the intent that he would control them both. Eventually his plans for Egypt would fail and Antiochus would return to the north through Israel.

His Confrontations with Israel

²⁸ Then he will return to his land with much plunder; but his heart will be set against the holy covenant, and he will take action and then return to his own land.

²⁹ “At the appointed time he will return and come into the South, but this last time it will not turn out the way it did before. ³⁰ For ships of Kittim will come against him; therefore he will be disheartened and will return and become enraged at the holy covenant and take action; so he will come back and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant.

► "His heart will be set against the holy covenant". Historically we know Antiochus, in 169BC, when returning to Syria after plundering Egypt, would then attack Israel, killing over 80,000 people, and plundered the temple.

► "Ships of Kittim", Kittim being the ancient name for Cypress, is a reference to a fleet of the Roman army. Supposedly, the generals of Rome threatened Antiochus with war if he didn't leave Egypt.

His Cruelty

³¹ Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation. ³² By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action. ³³ Those who have 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. ³⁴ Now when they fall they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in hypocrisy. ³⁵ Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.

► And now we come to a point in time, of which we know the exact date - December 15, 167BC.

→ "Forces from him", speaking of Antiochus, come back to Jerusalem and "desecrate the sanctuary fortress". Some translations call this the "temple fortress". The text is talking about the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. It's not a fortress in the specific military use of the word, but more like a place that defends the truth of God, the home, or center, of all Jewish worship. Within the temple, within the Holy of Holies in the core of the temple, is the place where God's glory is revealed to the High Priest alone, and only then once a year. It is the hub, if you will, of the entirety of Judaism.

→ The "abomination of desolation" is mentioned as is referring to specific events that happen during this desecration. Two of the specifics (among many) are...

1st - A statue of the Greek god Zeus is erected in the temple.

2nd - Apparently pigs (which are forbidden for Jews to eat) were sacrificed on the altar in the temple, making it unclean for the worship of the true God.

→ This isn't the last time the temple will suffer this fate. Jesus told us in Matthew 24:15ff that we will see the "abomination of desolation" again near the end of the tribulation in the future.

→ Verse 32 talks about how through his speaking he convinces some Jews to turn their back on God and their beliefs. But it also talks about an uprising of those "who know their God".

► We know from the record in the books of 1st & 2nd Maccabees, found in the extra-Biblical records of the Apocrypha, that the priest Mattathias and his 5 sons would lead the revolt against Antiochus and would re-dedicate the temple in 164BC, which ironically coincides with the timing of the death of Antiochus . That rededication is celebrated in the Jewish holiday Hanukkah.

So What?

► If nothing else, this is another reminder that no matter what is going on in the world, the one constant from a human perspective is change. The world is constantly changing, whether it be because of wars, or disease, or natural disasters.

► But it's also a reminder that God does not change. He is large and in-charge. His program, His plan, His purposes, no matter how chaotic or out-of-control our world seems to be, will not be thwarted.

► The fact that this prophecy, being a two-parter (near fulfillment and far fulfillment) should encourage us as we view all the chaos in our world today.

► God WILL prevail, and those of us who trust in Him can hold fast to that truth.

Posts in this series

► An introduction to the book of Daniel

► Daniel 1:1-21 • Daniel & Friends Tested and Enter the King's Service

► Daniel 2:1-49 • Nebuchadnezzar's First Dream and Promotion of Daniel

► Daniel 3:1-30 • The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace

► Daniel 4:1-37 • Nebuchadnezzar Dreams, Goes Insane, and Comes to His Senses

► Daniel 5:1-30 • The Handwriting on the Wall

► Daniel 6:1-28 • Daniel in the Lion's Den

► Daniel 7:1-28 • Daniel's Dream and Visions of Four Beasts

► Daniel 8:1-27 • Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat

► Daniel 9:1-27 • Daniel's Prayer and Seventy Sevens