Daniel 11:3

3 Surget vero rex fortis, et dominabitur potestate multa: et faciet quod placuerit ei.

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Curtius, l. 10. c. 5.

Daniel 11:3 In-Context

1 Ego autem ab anno primo Darii Medi stabam ut confortaretur, et roboraretur.

2 Et nunc veritatem annunciabo tibi. Ecce adhuc tres reges stabunt in Perside, et quartus ditabitur opibus nimiis super omnes: et cum invaluerit divitiis suis, concitabit omnes adversum regnum Graeciae.

3 Surget vero rex fortis, et dominabitur potestate multa: et faciet quod placuerit ei.

4 Et cum steterit, conteretur regnum eius, et dividetur in quattuor ventos caeli: sed non in posteros eius, neque secundum potentiam illius, qua dominatus est. lacerabitur enim regnum eius etiam in externos, exceptis his.

5 Et confortabitur rex Austri: et de principibus eius praevalebit super eum, et dominabitur ditione: multa enim dominatio eius.