Daniel 11:3

3 Forsooth a strong king shall rise, and shall be lord in great power, and shall do that, that shall please him(self).

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 Forsooth from the first year of Darius of Media, I stood, that he should be comforted, and made strong. (And from the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, I have stood, so that he would be strengthened, and made strong.)
2 And now I shall tell to thee the truth. And lo! three kings shall stand yet in Persia, and the fourth shall be made rich with full many riches over all (of them). And when he hath waxed strong by his riches, he shall raise all men against the realm of Greece (And when he hath grown strong through his riches, he shall raise up all the people against the kingdom of Greece).
3 Forsooth a strong king shall rise, and shall be lord in great power, and shall do that, that shall please him(self).
4 And when he shall stand, his realm shall be all-broken, and it shall be parted into four winds of heaven, but not into his heirs, neither by the power of him in which he was lord; for his realm shall be rent, yea, into strangers besides these. (And when he shall reign, all his kingdom shall be broken in pieces, and it shall be parted to the four winds of the heavens, but not to his heirs, for his kingdom shall be torn apart for others besides them; yea, for strangers, though no one shall have as great a power as he had, when he was lord and master.)
5 And the king of the south shall be comforted; and of the princes of him, one shall have power above him, and he shall be lord in power; for why his lordship shall be much. (And the king of the south shall be strengthened; and of his leaders, one shall get more power than him, and he shall be the lord, or the greater, in power; yea, his lordship shall be very great.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.