Daniel 11:12-22

12 And he shall take the multitude, and his heart shall be exalted; and he shall cast down many thousands; but he shall not prevail.

13 For the king of the north shall return, and bring a multitude greater than the former, and at the end of the times of years an invading army shall come with a great force, and with much substance.

14 And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the south; and the children of the spoilers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; and they shall fail.

15 And the king of the north shall come in, and cast up a mound, and take strong cities: and the arms of the king of the south shall withstand, and his chosen ones shall rise up, but there shall be no strength to stand.

16 And he that comes in against him shall do according to his will, and there is no one to stand before him: and he shall stand in the land of beauty, and it shall be consumed by his hand.

17 And he shall set his face to come in with the force of his whole kingdom, and shall cause everything to prosper with him: and he shall give him the daughter of women to corrupt her: but she shall not continue, neither be on his side.

18 And he shall turn his face to the islands, and shall take many, and cause princes to cease from their reproach: nevertheless his own reproach shall return to him.

19 Then he shall turn back his face to the strength of his own land: but he shall become weak, and fall, and not be found.

20 And there shall arise out of his root one that shall cause a plant of the kingdom to pass over his place, earning kingly glory: and yet in those days shall he be broken, yet not openly, nor in war.

21 shall stand on his place, has been set a nought, and they have not put upon him the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in prosperously, and obtain the kingdom by deceitful ways.

22 And the arms of him that overflows shall be washed away as with a flood from before him, and shall be broken, and the head of the covenant.

Daniel 11:12-22 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.