Daniel 11:1-30

Conflicts to Come

1 "In the ¹first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him.

2 "And now I will tell you the ²truth. Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them; as soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of ³Greece.

3 "And a ⁴mighty king will arise, and he will rule with great authority and ⁵do as he pleases.

4 "But as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out ⁶toward the ⁷four points of the compass, though not to his own descendants, nor according to his authority which he wielded, for his sovereignty will be ⁸uprooted and given to others besides * them.

5 "Then the ⁹king 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 ¹⁰king 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 ¹¹fortress of the king of the North, and he will deal with them and display great strength.

8 "Also their ¹²gods 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 ¹³overflow and pass through, that he may again wage war up to his very fortress.

11 "The ¹⁴king 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 ¹⁵interval * 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 ¹⁶siege 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 ¹⁷do as he pleases, and ¹⁸no one will be able to withstand * him; he will also stay for a time in the ¹⁹Beautiful Land, with destruction in his hand.

17 "He will ²⁰set 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 ²¹coastlands and capture many. But a commander will put a stop to his scorn against him; moreover, he will ²²repay him for his scorn.

19 "So he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will ²³stumble and fall and be ²⁴found no more.

20 "Then in his place one will arise who will ²⁵send 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 ²⁶seize the kingdom by intrigue.

22 "The overflowing ²⁷forces 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 ²⁸richest 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 ²⁹king 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 ³⁰overflow, but many will fall down slain.

27 "As for both kings, their hearts will be intent on ³¹evil, and they will ³²speak lies to each other at the same table; but it will not succeed, for the ³³end 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 ³⁴Kittim 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.

Daniel 11:1-30 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. Daniel 5:31; Daniel 9:1
• 2. Daniel 8:26; Daniel 10:1, 21
• 3. Daniel 8:21; Daniel 10:20
• 4. Daniel 8:5, 21
• 5. Daniel 5:19; Daniel 8:4; Daniel 11:16, 36
• 6. Daniel 8:8, 22
• 7. Jeremiah 49:36; Ezekiel 37:9; Daniel 7:2; Daniel 8:8; Zechariah 2:6; Revelation 7:1
• 8. Jeremiah 12:15, 17; Jeremiah 18:7
• 9. Dan 11:9, 11, 14, 25, 40
• 10. Dan 11:7, 13, 15, 40
• 11. Dan 11:19, 38, 39
• 12. Isaiah 37:19; Isaiah 46:1, 2; Jeremiah 43:12, 13
• 13. Isaiah 8:8; Jeremiah 46:7, 8; Jeremiah 51:42; Daniel 11:26, 40
• 14. Daniel 11:5
• 15. Daniel 4:16; Daniel 12:7
• 16. Jeremiah 6:6; Ezekiel 4:2; Ezekiel 17:17
• 17. Daniel 5:19; Daniel 11:3, 36
• 18. Joshua 1:5
• 19. Daniel 8:9; Daniel 11:41
• 20. 2 Kings 12:17; Ezekiel 4:3, 7
• 21. Genesis 10:5; Isaiah 66:19; Jeremiah 2:10; Jeremiah 31:10; Zephaniah 2:11
• 22. Hosea 12:14
• 23. Psalms 27:2; Jeremiah 46:6
• 24. Job 20:8; Psalms 37:36; Ezekiel 26:21
• 25. Isaiah 60:17
• 26. 2 Samuel 15:6
• 27. Daniel 9:26; Daniel 11:10
• 28. Numbers 13:20; Nehemiah 9:25; Ezekiel 34:14
• 29. Daniel 11:5
• 30. Daniel 11:10, 40
• 31. Psalms 52:1; Psalms 64:6
• 32. Psalms 12:2; Jeremiah 9:3-5; Jeremiah 41:1-3
• 33. Daniel 8:19; Daniel 11:35, 40; Habakkuk 2:3
• 34. Genesis 10:4; Numbers 24:24; Isaiah 23:1, 12; Jeremiah 2:10

Footnotes

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