Daniel 11:5-35

5 "Then the ¹king 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 ²king 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.

7 "But one of the descendants of her line will arise in his place, and he will come against their army and enter the ³fortress of the king of the North, and he will deal with them and display great strength.

8 "Also their ⁴gods 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 ⁵overflow and pass through, that he may again wage war up to his very fortress.

11 "The ⁶king 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.

13 "For the king of the North will again raise a greater multitude than the former, and after an ⁷interval * 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 ⁸siege 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 ⁹do as he pleases, and ¹⁰no one will be able to withstand * him; he will also stay for a time in the ¹¹Beautiful Land, with destruction in his hand.

17 "He will ¹²set 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 ¹³coastlands and capture many. But a commander will put a stop to his scorn against him; moreover, he will ¹⁴repay him for his scorn.

19 "So he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will ¹⁵stumble and fall and be ¹⁶found no more.

20 "Then in his place one will arise who will ¹⁷send an oppressor through the Jewel of his kingdom; yet within a few days he will be shattered, though not in anger nor in battle.

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 ¹⁸seize the kingdom by intrigue.

22 "The overflowing ¹⁹forces 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.

24 "In a time of tranquility he will enter the ²⁰richest 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.

25 "He will stir up his strength and courage against the ²¹king 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 ²²overflow, but many will fall down slain.

27 "As for both kings, their hearts will be intent on ²³evil, and they will ²⁴speak lies to each other at the same table; but it will not succeed, for the ²⁵end is still to come at the appointed time.

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 ²⁶Kittim 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.

31 "Forces from him will arise, ²⁷desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the ²⁸abomination of desolation.

32 "By ²⁹smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display ³⁰strength and take action.

33 "³¹Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many; yet they will ³²fall 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 ³³join with them in ³⁴hypocrisy.

35 "Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to ³⁵refine, ³⁶purge and make them ³⁷pure until the ³⁸end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.

Daniel 11:5-35 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DANIEL 11

In this chapter the angel makes good his promise to Daniel, that he would show him what was written in the Scripture of truth, concerning the monarchies of the earth, and what would befall his people the Jews in the latter days; and after he had observed that he had strengthened and confirmed Darius the Mede, who was the first king of the then present flourishing monarchy, Da 11:1, he foretells the number of the kings of Persia, and particularly describes the fourth, Da 11:2 predicts the rise of the Grecian monarchy under Alexander the great, and the disposition of it after his death, Da 11:3,4 and then proceeds to give an account of the two principal kingdoms of that monarchy, into which it was divided, the Seleucidae and Lagidae; and of their kings, the king of Egypt, and the king of Syria, under the names of the king of the south, and the king of the north, and of their power and agreement, Da 11:5,6 and then of their various wars between themselves and others, and the success of them, Da 11:7-20, and particularly of Antiochus, his character and manner of coming to the kingdom, and of his wars with the king of Egypt, and the issue of them, Da 11:21-29 and of his persecution of the Jews, and the distress he should bring on them, and the use it should be of to the godly among them, Da 11:30-35, and then his antitype, antichrist, is described; the western antichrist, his character and actions, Da 11:36-39 then the eastern, his power, wealth and riches, hail and rain, Da 11:40-45.

Cross References

• 1. Dan 11:9, 11, 14, 25, 40
• 2. Dan 11:7, 13, 15, 40
• 3. Dan 11:19, 38, 39
• 4. Isaiah 37:19; Isaiah 46:1, 2; Jeremiah 43:12, 13
• 5. Isaiah 8:8; Jeremiah 46:7, 8; Jeremiah 51:42; Daniel 11:26, 40
• 6. Daniel 11:5
• 7. Daniel 4:16; Daniel 12:7
• 8. Jeremiah 6:6; Ezekiel 4:2; Ezekiel 17:17
• 9. Daniel 5:19; Daniel 11:3, 36
• 10. Joshua 1:5
• 11. Daniel 8:9; Daniel 11:41
• 12. 2 Kings 12:17; Ezekiel 4:3, 7
• 13. Genesis 10:5; Isaiah 66:19; Jeremiah 2:10; Jeremiah 31:10; Zephaniah 2:11
• 14. Hosea 12:14
• 15. Psalms 27:2; Jeremiah 46:6
• 16. Job 20:8; Psalms 37:36; Ezekiel 26:21
• 17. Isaiah 60:17
• 18. 2 Samuel 15:6
• 19. Daniel 9:26; Daniel 11:10
• 20. Numbers 13:20; Nehemiah 9:25; Ezekiel 34:14
• 21. Daniel 11:5
• 22. Daniel 11:10, 40
• 23. Psalms 52:1; Psalms 64:6
• 24. Psalms 12:2; Jeremiah 9:3-5; Jeremiah 41:1-3
• 25. Daniel 8:19; Daniel 11:35, 40; Habakkuk 2:3
• 26. Genesis 10:4; Numbers 24:24; Isaiah 23:1, 12; Jeremiah 2:10
• 27. Daniel 8:11-13; Daniel 12:11
• 28. Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14
• 29. Daniel 11:21, 34
• 30. Micah 5:7-9; Zechariah 9:13-16; Zechariah 10:3-6
• 31. Malachi 2:7
• 32. Matthew 24:9; John 16:2; Hebrews 11:36-38
• 33. Matthew 7:15; Acts 20:29, 30
• 34. Daniel 11:21, 32; Romans 16:18
• 35. Deuteronomy 8:16; Proverbs 17:3; Daniel 12:10; Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:2, 3
• 36. John 15:2
• 37. Revelation 7:14
• 38. Daniel 11:27

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "and"
• [b]. Lit "and he"
• [c]. Or "an equitable agreement"
• [d]. Lit "strength of arm"
• [e]. Lit "arm"
• [f]. Lit "branch of her roots"
• [g]. Lit "cast images"
• [h]. Or "stand against the king"
• [i]. Lit "he will," and so throughout the ch
• [j]. Or "wage war"
• [k]. Or "return and wage"
• [l]. Lit "with him, with"
• [m]. Lit "his hand"
• [n]. Lit "at the end of the times, years"
• [o]. Or "keep on coming"
• [p]. Lit "stumble," and so throughout the ch
• [q]. Lit "the people of its choice ones"
• [r]. I.e. Palestine
• [s]. Lit "and"
• [t]. Lit "equitable things"
• [u]. Lit "for him;" i.e. for her father
• [v]. Or "exactor" of tribute
• [w]. Lit "adornment;" i.e. probably Jerusalem and its temple
• [x]. Lit "Into tranquility and the richest...he will enter"
• [y]. Or "province"
• [z]. Lit "fathers' fathers"
• [aa]. Lit "heart"
• [ab]. Lit "break"
• [ac]. Or "be swept away, and many"
• [ad]. Lit "possessions"
• [ae]. Lit "it will not happen as the first and as the last"
• [af]. I.e. Cyprus
• [ag]. Lit "that makes desolate;" or "that causes horror"
• [ah]. Or "pollute those"
• [ai]. Or "Instructors of" the "people"
• [aj]. Or "the instructors"
• [ak]. Lit "white"