Daniel 11:1–19: Kings On the North and South of the Holy Land

PHIL HARRIS Seeker of Truth

Introduction

Daniel received this prophecy and concluded the book of Daniel before his estimated death in 536 BC. At the time of his vision, all that is recorded in this prophecy was in the future. However, in our own time, much of this prophecy has been precisely fulfilled, and history confirms these details. Only that which relates to the end of time is still in the future. 

Because the prophecies in Daniel 11 are so specific and detailed, people who don’t believe in the God of miracles have a serious problem with Daniel’s being the author of this book. They say that, instead of the book being written in the mid-sixth century BC, it was written after the desecrations described there occurred. In other words, they see Daniel as history rather than as prophecy.

Yet we believe that Daniel did receive the visions he describes in his book, and Daniel 11 is no exception: these prophecies foretold the attacks and battles involving Israel that would occur during the kingdoms of Persia and Greece, and the chapter ends with prophecies of the end times which have not yet occurred.

Fulfillment of the events outlined in this chapter alone provides solid proof that there is a God who does know the future. Therefore, what remains of this prophecy is a warning that sinners need to repent and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior now:

As we walk through Daniel 11, I will rely on several Bible commentaries to summarize the political moves and battles that fulfilled these prophecies. In Adventism we did not learn how this chapter perfectly outlined in advance the aggression between the kings of the South and of the North and the ways those kings’ warring affect the nation of Israel which was positioned between them. I am indebted to the scholars who have compiled the historical details that fulfill these prophecies.

The Vision Continues

Before commencing with this prophecy, the angel informs Daniel he was the one who protected Darius during his reign over Persia.

The Last Four Persian Kings (Daniel 11:2)

These kings were:

1. Cambyses II ruled 530-522 BC

Cambyses II was the son and successor of Cyrus the Great.

2. Bardiya, ruled for a short time in 522 BC.

Bardiya was the younger brother of Cambyses II.

3. Darius I, ruled 522-486 BC

Darius I was commonly known as Darius the Great. He ascended the throne by overthrowing Bardiya who, he claimed, was an impostor.

4. Xerxes, ruled 486-465 BC

Xerxes (his Greek name) was the son of Darius. He was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning until his assassination. He had great wealth which confirms biblical prophecy. He used his wealth in a failed attack on Greece in the hopes of expanding his kingdom. This attack angered Alexander and ,as the saying goes, the rest is history.

Alexander the Great’s Empire

This mighty king was Alexander the Great who conquered the known world and ruled the Greek Empire from 335 BC until his death in 323 BC. Of course, the known world would be from the context of Daniel and the Hebrew people.

At the sudden death of Alexander, there erupted great turmoil that led to four of Alexander’s primary generals dividing up the empire, or—as Scripture prophesied—“divided toward the four winds of heaven”. The empire was divided this way:

  1. Cassander took Macedonia. 
  2. Lysimachus took northern Asia Minor. 
  3. Seleucus took Syria including southern Asia Minor. 
  4. Ptolemy took Egypt.

Ptolemy’s and Seleucus’ Kingdoms

This prophecy now focuses our attention on the warfare between the kingdoms of Ptolemy (Egypt, or the South) and Seleucus (Syria, or the North) with Hebrew people being caught in the middle of their fighting.

Ptolemy I:

“Then the king of the south shall be strong”: One of the four inheritors of the empire of the mighty king (Alexander the Great) would become stronger and greater than the others. He would gain power over him and have dominion: This prophecy was fulfilled in Ptolemy I of Egypt, who exerted his control over the Holy Land. Soon after the division of Alexander’s Empire, the Ptolemies dominated this region.

Seleucus, son of Ptolemy I:

Ptolemy I had a prince named Seleucus, who rose to power and took dominion over the region of Syria. He became more powerful than his former Egyptian ruler. The Seleucids are identified with the Kings of the North, and the Ptolemies were the Kings of the South.

The dynasties of the Seleucids and the Ptolemies fought for some 130 years. The stronger of the two always held dominion over the Holy Land—Enduring Word commentary.

This verse was fulfilled in history:

In about 249 BC, in order to terminate his long wars with Antiochus II (kingdom of the north), Ptolemy Philadelphus gave him in marriage his daughter, Berenice, upon condition that he should divorce his wife, Laodice, and that his two sons, Seleucus and Antiochus, should renounce all claim to the throne of Syria: in the event of Antiochus and Berenice having issue, Ptolemy hoped in this way to secure Syria as an Egyptian province. After two years, however, Ptolemy died. Antiochus then took back Laodice, and divorced Berenice. Laodice, however, dreading her husband’s fickleness, and fearing lest he might again evince a preference for Berenice, before long procured his death by poison. She then persuaded her son, Seleucus, to secure the throne for himself by murdering both Berenice and her infant child—Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, edited.

Ptolemy Euergetes I, Berenice’s brother, an enterprising and energetic king, in revenge for his sister’s murder, invaded the empire of Seleucus, seized Seleukeia, the fortified port of Antioch, and overran the greater part of Seleucus’ Asiatic dominions as far as Babylon. The murder of Berenice had made Seleucus unpopular with his subjects; and had Ptolemy not been called home by an insurrection in Egypt, he would in all probability have made himself master of Seleucus’ entire empire. Ptolemy returned, bringing back with him an immense quantity of spoil—Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, edited.

History literally fulfills the prophecy given to Daniel.

The sons of Seleucus Kallinikos were Seleucus III (Keraunos, 227-224 bc) and Antiochus the Great (224-187 BC). Keraunos only reigned two years, and in 224 BC his brother Antiochus III succeeded him. Both kings assembled immense forces to avenge the insult of the Egyptian invasion, the defeat of their father, and the retention of their port and fortress of Seleucia. It was only sixteen miles from Antioch, and being still garrisoned by Egyptians, which constituted a standing danger and insult to their capital city—Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

After twenty-seven years the port of Seleucia is wrested from the Egyptians by Antiochus the Great, and he so completely reverses the former successes of the King of the South as to conquer Syria as far as Gaza—Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

But at last the young Egyptian King, Ptolemy IV (Philopator), is roused from his dissipation and effeminacy, advances to Raphia (southwest of Gaza) with a great army of twenty thousand foot, five thousand horse, and seventy-three elephants, and there, to his own immense self-exaltation, he inflicts a severe defeat on Antiochus, and “casts down tens of thousands.” Yet the victory is illusive, although it enables Ptolemy to annex Palestine to Egypt. For Ptolemy “shall not show himself strong,” but shall, by his supineness, and by making a speedy peace, throw away all the fruits of his victory, while he returns to his past dissipation—Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

Twelve years later (205 BC) Ptolemy Philopator died, leaving an infant son, Ptolemy Epiphanes. Antiochus, smarting from his defeat at Raphia, again assembled an army, which was still greater than before (203 bc), and much war-material. In the intervening years he had won great victories in the East as far as India—Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

Antiochus shall be aided by the fact that many—including his ally Philip, King of Macedon, and various rebel-subjects of Ptolemy Epiphanes—stood up against the King of Egypt and wrested Phoenicia and Southern Syria from him. The Syrians were further strengthened by the assistance of the “children of the violent” among the Jews, “who shall lift themselves up to fulfill the vision of the oracle ; but they shall fall”—Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

But however much any of the Jews may have helped Antiochus under the hope of ultimately regaining their independence, their hopes were frustrated. The Syrian King came, besieged, and took a well-fenced city-perhaps an allusion to the fact that he wrested Sidon from the Egyptians. After his great victory over the Egyptian general Scopas at Mount Panium (198 BC), the routed Egyptian forces, to the number of ten thousand, flung themselves into that city. This campaign ruined the interests of Egypt in Palestine, “the glorious land.” Palestine now passed to Antiochus, who took possession “with destruction in his hand”—Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

(198-195 BC) After this there shall again be an attempt at “equitable negotiations”; by which, however, Antiochus hoped to get final possession of Egypt and destroy it. He arranged a marriage between “a daughter of women”—his daughter Cleopatra—and Ptolemy Epiphanes. But this attempt also entirely failed—Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

Antiochus therefore “sets his face in another direction,” and tries to conquer the islands and coasts of Asia Minor. But the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus puts an end to the insolent scorn with which he had spoken of the Romans, and pays him back with equal scorn, utterly defeating him in the great Battle of Magnesia (190 BC), and forcing him to ignominious terms—Expositor’s Bible Commentary..

(175 bc) Antiochus next turns his attention (“sets his face”) to strengthen the fortress of his own land in the east and west; but making an attempt to recruit his dissipated wealth by the plunder of the Temple of Belus in Elymais, “stumbles and falls, and is not found”—Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

Summary

  1. Just as was prophesied, history records the rule of the last four kings of the Persian Empire that fell to Alexander the Great. At Alexander’s sudden death, his empire was scattered to the “the four winds”. This prophecy then focuses the Seleucus and Ptolemy kingdoms with their infighting taking place in the Holy Land.
  1. Chapter eleven of the book of Daniel has the reputation of being the most precisely detailed prophecy concerning events, persons, and places in all of Scripture. Therefore, those who don’t believe in the God of miracles have reasoned, without proof, that this prophecy must have been written by someone other than Daniel after the fact. However, Jesus, in Matthew 24:15-16, validates Daniel as the author of the book of Daniel.
  2. The purpose of this commentary has been to show how history has confirmed this prophecy fulfilled in such complex detail that the rest of this chapter will be covered in the next commentary where the primary theme concerns “the abomination that makes desolate”.

—All references unless otherwise stated are taken from the ESV.

Phillip Harris

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