Daniel 11:3

Prophecies about Persia and Greece

3 Then a warrior king will arise; he will rule a vast realm and do whatever he wants.

Daniel 11:3 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 11:3

And a mighty king shall stand up
Not in Persia, but in Greece; Alexander the great, who rose up a hundred years after the above expedition of Xerxes, and "stood" and flourished, and conquered all he attacked, none being able to resist him; and is rightly called a "mighty king", a very powerful one: this is the notable horn in the he goat, which being exasperated by the ram, the Persians, and their invasion of Greece, pushed at them, and destroyed them, ( Daniel 8:5-7 ) : that shall rule with great dominion; not in Greece only but in the whole world, at least as he thought, and really did over a very great part of it; for, as Jerome says, having conquered the Illyrians, Thracians, Greece, and Thebes, he passed into Asia; and, having put to flight the generals of Darius, he took the city of Sardis, and afterwards India. And do according to his will;
not only in his own army, sacrificing his best friends at his pleasure; but with his enemies, conquering whom he would, none being able to withstand him; all things succeeded to his wish; whatever he attempted he performed. His historian F15 says of him,

``that it must be owned he owed much to virtue, but more to fortune, which alone of all mortals he had in his power;''
since, by the benefit of it, he seemed to do with nations whatever he pleased; he was sovereign in all things, and set himself to be worshipped as a deity.
FOOTNOTES:

F15 Curtius, l. 10. c. 5.

Daniel 11:3 In-Context

1 In the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to strengthen and protect him.
2 Now I will tell you the truth. "Three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth will be far richer than the others. By the power he gains through his riches, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece.
3 Then a warrior king will arise; he will rule a vast realm and do whatever he wants.
4 But as soon as he is established, his kingdom will be broken up and divided to the four winds of heaven, but not to his descendants; it will not be the same kingdom that he ruled, because his kingdom will be uprooted and will go to others besides them.
5 "The king of the South will grow powerful, but one of his commanders will grow more powerful and will rule a kingdom greater than his.
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