Daniel 11

ENGWEBEnglish45 verses

1“As for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

2Now will I show you the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and when he has grown strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.

3A mighty king shall stand up, who shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

4When he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of the sky, but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides these.

5The king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.

6At the end of years they shall join themselves together; 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; neither shall he stand, nor his arm; but she shall be given up, and those who brought her, and he who became the father of her, and he who strengthened her in those times.

7But out of a shoot from her roots shall one stand up in his place, who shall come to the army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail.

8Also their gods, with their molten images, and with their goodly vessels of silver and of gold, shall he carry captive into Egypt; and he shall refrain some years from the king of the north.

9He shall come into the realm of the king of the south, but he shall return into his own land.

10His sons shall war, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall come on, and overflow, and pass through; and they shall return and war, even to his fortress.

11The king of the south shall be moved with anger, and shall come out and fight with him, even with the king of the north; and he shall send out a great multitude, and the multitude shall be given into his hand.

12The multitude shall be lifted up, and his heart shall be exalted; and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail.

13The king of the north shall return, and shall send out a multitude greater than the former; and he shall come on at the end of the times, even of years, with a great army and with much substance.

14In those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the children of the violent among your people shall lift themselves up to establish the vision; but they shall fall.

15So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mound, and take a well-fortified city: and the forces of the south shall not stand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to stand.

16But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and no one shall stand before him; and he shall stand in the glorious land, and in his hand shall be destruction.

17He shall set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and with him equitable conditions; and he shall perform them: and he shall give him the daughter of women, to corrupt her; but she shall not stand, neither be for him.

18After this shall he turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: but a prince shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; yes, moreover, he shall cause his reproach to turn on him.

19Then he shall turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found.

20Then shall stand up in his place one who shall cause a tax collector to pass through the kingdom to maintain its glory; but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.

21In his place shall stand up a contemptible person, to whom they had not given the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in time of security, and shall obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

22The overwhelming forces shall be overwhelmed from before him, and shall be broken; yes, also the prince of the covenant.

23After the treaty made with him he shall work deceitfully; for he shall come up, and shall become strong, with a small people.

24In time of security shall he come even on the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them prey, and plunder, and substance: yes, he shall devise his devices against the strongholds, even for a time.

25He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall war in battle with an exceeding great and mighty army; but he shall not stand; for they shall devise devices against him.

26Yes, they who eat of his dainties shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow; and many shall fall down slain.

27As for both these kings, their hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table: but it shall not prosper; for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

28Then he will return into his land with great substance; and his heart will be against the holy covenant; and he will take action, and return to his own land.

29At the time appointed he shall return, and come into the south; but it shall not be in the latter time as it was in the former.

30For ships of Kittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and shall return, and have indignation against the holy covenant, and shall take action: he shall even return, and have regard to those who forsake the holy covenant.

31Forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual burnt offering, and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.

32Such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he pervert by flatteries; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and take action.

33Those who are wise among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder, many days.

34Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall join themselves to them with flatteries.

35Some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end; because it is yet for the time appointed.

36The king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods; and he shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done.

37Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.

38But in his place shall he honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers didn’t know shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

39He shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god: whoever acknowledges him he will increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.

40At the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.

41He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

42He shall stretch out his hand also on the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

43But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

44But news out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.

45He shall plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one shall help him.

Commentary

11:1-30 The angel shows Daniel the succession of the Persian and Grecian empires. The kings of Egypt and Syria are noticed: Judea was between their dominions, and affected by their contests. From ver. 5-30, is generally considered to relate to the events which came to pass during the continuance of these governments; and from ver. 21, to relate to Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a cruel and violent persecutor of the Jews. See what decaying, perishing things worldly pomp and possessions are, and the power by which they are gotten. God, in his providence, sets up one, and pulls down another, as he pleases. This world is full of wars and fightings, which come from men's lusts. All changes and revolutions of states and kingdoms, and every event, are plainly and perfectly foreseen by God. No word of God shall fall to the ground; but what he has designed, what he has declared, shall infallibly come to pass. While the potsherds of the earth strive with each other, they prevail and are prevailed against, deceive and are deceived; but those who know God will trust in him, and he will enable them to stand their ground, bear their cross, and maintain their conflict.

"\nAlso I, in the first year of Darius the Mede,.... These words more properly belong to the preceding chapter, and should have concluded that, and the "eleventh" chapter should have begun in the next verse; and they are not the words of Daniel, as Jerom and others; but of the angel telling Daniel, not only what he had been lately doing, and would do in the court of Persia for his people; but what he had done in the beginning of that monarchy, the very first year that Darius the Mede became king of Babylon, and head of the whole monarchy; see Da 5:30, the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "in the first year of Cyrus"; which was the same time; for Darius and Cyrus reigned together.\n\nEven I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him; not Michael your Prince, as Jarchi; for he being no other than the Son of God, an uncreated Angel, needed not the help and assistance of a created one, nor could receive any strength and confirmation from such an one; unless this is to be understood, not with respect to Michael himself abstractly considered, but as in relation to the people of the Jews, on whose side Michael was; and so this angel took part with him and them, and as his minister served them both, in defending them, and taking care of their affairs at this time; so Jacchiades paraphrases it, to confirm and strengthen Israel: but it seems rather to design Darius, and the sense to be, that this angel strengthened Darius and Cyrus in their good intentions to let the people of Israel go free and give them full liberty and encouragement to go into their own land, and rebuild their city and temple; about which some doubts and hesitations might arise in their minds, and objections be made by some of their nobles and courtiers to it, being moved and influenced by an evil spirit, the adversary of this good angel; but he attended them so closely, and so strongly suggested to them what they should do in this case, that he carried his point on behalf of the Jews; for this respects not so much the destruction of the Chaldean monarchy, and the establishing the Persian monarchy on the ruins of it, and settling Darius on the throne, and strengthening his kingdom and interest, as the confirmation of him and Cyrus in their designs in favour of the Jews. The Syriac version is, "from the first year of Darius the Mede, he rose up to help me, and assist me"; as if the angel was still speaking of Michael, who came to his help against the prince of Persia, and was the only one that held with him, and had done so from the beginning of the Persian empire; but the Hebrew text will not admit of such a translation.\n\n\n\n "

CHAPTER 11Da 11:1-45. 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.1. I—the angel (Da 10:18).first year of Darius—Cyaxares II; the year of the conquest of Babylon (Da 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 (Da 9:1, 2, 21, 23).stood—implying promptness in helping (Ps 94:16).strengthen him—namely, Michael; even as Michael (Da 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.

2. three kings in Persia—Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes. (Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, and Darius, in Ezr 4:6, 7, 24). The Ahasuerus of Esther (see on [1101]Da 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 (Da 11:2).fourth … 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, Da 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.stir 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. l. 410].

"\nAnd now will I show thee the truth,....

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Translations8 · 5

AMHEVG “እኔም በሜዶናዊ በዳርዮስ መጀመሪያ ዓመት አጸናውና አበረታው ዘንድ ቆሜ ነበር። አማርኛ ENGNIV And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him.) English BCV “ኣነውን ዳርዮስ ሜዶናዊ ምስ ነገሰ በታ ቐዳመይቲ ዓመት፥ ንእኡ ንኽሕግዝን ንኸበርትዖን ቆይመ ነበርኩ። ሕዚ ኸዓ ነቲ ሓቂ ኸፍልጠካ እየ” በለኒ። ትግርኛ GAZBIB Inni anatti dubbachaa ture sun itti dabalee,“Daariyos namni Medoon mo'ee waggaa tokkoffaa isaa keessa, ani ergamaa isa … Afaan Oromoo BCV GIZ ወኮነ በዓመት ቀዳሚ ለዳርዮስ ሜዶናዊ መንግሥቱ ቆምኩ ለኃትሎቱ ወለረዲኤቲ። giz GAZGAZ Inni anatti dubbachaa ture sun itti dabalee,“Daariyos namni Medoon mo'ee waggaa tokkoffaa isaa keessa, ani ergamaa isa … Afaan Oromoo BCV aksum “ኣነውን ዳርዮስ ሜዶናዊ ምስ ነገሰ በታ ቐዳመይቲ ዓመት፥ ንእኡ ንኽሕግዝን ንኸበርትዖን ቆይመ ነበርኩ። ሕዚ ኸዓ ነቲ ሓቂ ኸፍልጠካ እየ” በለኒ። ትግርኛ AMHNIV እኔም፣ ሜዶናዊው ዳርዮስ በነገሠ በመጀመሪያው ዓመት፣ እርሱን ለማገዝና ለማበረታታት በአጠገቡ ቆሜ ነበር። አማርኛ