And in his estate shall stand up a vile person
Upon his basis or stand, in the same place where Seleucus
Philopator stood, succeeded Antiochus Epiphanes his brother,
called "vile", being a very immoral man, given to drunkenness,
lasciviousness, uncleanness, and unnatural lusts, and a violent
persecutor of the church of God. The word signifies "despicable"
F16; he was a vile person, and justly
condemned for his vices, and also for that mean and ignoble life
he had lived at Rome, having been an hostage there for eleven or
twelve years; and though the other hostages were changed at three
years' end, yet he remained; which shows what little account he
was of even with his father; and was in no esteem with the
people, among whom, by his freaks and frolics, he made himself
very ridiculous; by rambling about streets with a servant or two;
conversing with tradesmen about their trades; drinking with
strangers, and people of low life; revelling at merry bouts with
young people; putting on strange habits; throwing away his money
among the rabble, and stones at those that followed him; washing
at public baths among the common people; all which, and many
others, are reported F17 of him by historians; hence he was
called by some Epimanes the madman; though he took to himself the
title of Epiphanes the "illustrious", the reverse of his
character. This is the little horn in ( Daniel 8:9 ) and who was
an eminent type of antichrist, with whom his character agrees, as
well as other things: to whom they shall not give the
honour of the kingdom;
neither his father, nor his brother, nor the peers and people of
the land of the kingdom of Syria; they never once thought of
making him king; they neither chose him, nor called him, nor
crowned him: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the
kingdom by flatteries;
pretending to take it, not for himself, but for his nephew
Demetrius, the son of his brother Seleucus, now an hostage at
Rome, in his stead; so that the states opposed him not, but
quietly admitted him, thinking all was safe for the rightful heir
and successor; and when he had got possession for his nephew, he
obtained it for himself by his flattering speeches to the nobles,
and his gifts among the citizens, and his great pretensions to
clemency and humanity; or these "flatteries" may refer to the
artifices he used to gain Eumenes king of Pergamus, and Attalus
his brother, to assist him against Heliodorus the usurper; and
the promises of friendship and assistance against the Romans he
made to them, and by whose help he came peaceably to the kingdom.