Daniel 11

Ver. 1, Should have stood in the preceding chapter; and means that Gabriel had encouraged and excited Darius the Mede and Cyrus to release 103 15* the Jews, notwithstanding the great opposition that design met with from devils and wicked courtiers

Daniel 11:2-4

After Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspes, Xerxes, being extremely wealthy, shall attempt to engage all his subjects and many others to destroy the Greeks, and shall invade them with a powerful army, but shall be shamefully defeated.—Long after this Alexander the Macedonian, having become king of all Greece, shall invade and conquer Persia; and, after a short reign, be cut off by death, and his kingdom parted into four; but no part shared by his own relations

Daniel 11:5-9

Ptolemy Lagus, king of Egypt and the countries adjacent, shall be very powerful; but Seleucus Nicator of Syria and the places adjacent, still more powerful, and his dominion more extensive.—Wearied of the war between the two kingdoms, Antiochus Theos, the third Syro-grecian king, shall, for establishing a peace, marry Bernice, the daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt. But he and she, and all her relations and friends, shall be quickly destroyed by Laodice his former wife. Then Ptolemy Euergetes of Egypt, Bernice’s brother, in revenge, shall terribly ravage Syria, and even conquer it, till a sedition at home shall oblige him to return, yet laden with prisoners and spoil

Daniel 11:10-20

To recover what their father Callinicus of Syria had lost, his sons Ceraunus and Antiochus the Great shall levy a formidable army; and, after his brother’s death, Antiochus shall ravage even to the north-east border of Egypt, where Ptolemy Philopator’s troops shall 9 Y give him a terrible defeat; which, issuing in Ptolemy’s rage against the Jews and his abandoning himself to luxury, shall conduce to the hurt of his kingdom.—Ptolemy dying, and leaving his son Epiphanes an infant, Antiochus, assisted by part of the Jews, shall march a great army into Egypt, and ravage the country; and, after bribing his daughter Cleopatra to murder him, he shall marry her to young Ptolemy Epiphanes of Egypt: but she proving faithful to her husband, her father, disappointed of his designs on the kingdom of Egypt, shall, in his rage, attack and take many of the isles and coasts of the Egean sea, now the east part of the Mediterranean. But the Romans, whom he now insults, in invading their allies and treating their ambassadors with contempt, shall stop his career; and, after many shameful defeats, oblige him to quit Lesser Asia, pay all the expenses of the war, and give his own son for a pledge of the payment. Retiring into his kingdom, he shall be murdered at Elymais, in his attempt to rob a temple of Jupiter. His elder son Seleucus Philopator shall be famous for nothing but for oppressing his people with taxes to pay the Roman debts; and shall, after a short reign, be poisoned by Heliodorus his treasurer

Daniel 11:21-29

He shall be succeeded by his despicable, debauched, and frantic brother, Antiochus Epiphanes, who shall have long lived at Rome as an hostage for the payment of his father’s debt. Not by right, but by flattering the Syrians, Romans, Pergamenians, and others, he shall procure the Syrian crown, and get the better of all his opposers. And, by scattering among his subjects the spoils taken from his opposers, he shall firmly attach them to his interests. After fixing himself on his throne, he shall march his mighty army against Ptolemy of Egypt, his cousin; and by the help of traitors, shall rout his forces. And, after making a league with him, which neither party intend to keep, he shall return home to Syria, terribly murdering the Jews, and ravaging their country in his way. Not long after, he shall again invade Egypt with a formidable army, but without success

Daniel 11:30-35

For the Roman ambassadors, arriving in Macedonian ships, shall prohibit him from proceeding against Ptolemy, whom they shall have taken into their protection. Enraged herewith, he shall return home; and, by fearful murder and persecutions, shall attempt to abolish the Jewish religion or extirpate their nation. And, assisted by apostate Jews, he shall abolish the daily sacrifice, and make their temple a sink of idolatry, whoredom, and other wickedness.—While many of the Jews suffer for their religion, Matthias and his sons, called Maccabees, shall take arms; and, by a multitude of valiant encounters, shall defeat the Syro-grecians, retake and purify the temple, and restore the true worship of God. But some understand these six verses of the Romish Heathens, and their persecution of the Christians

Daniel 11:36-45

Some understand these verses also of Antiochus’ pride, insolence, blasphemy, introduction of new deities, and his brutal murder of women and children; and of his ravaging Canaan, Egypt, and the countries about; till at length he was embarrassed by a Parthian war from the east, and at last miserably destroyed by God. But they, at least chiefly, represent the Romish Antichrist as exalting himself above magistrates, angels, and even the divine persons, prohibiting marriage, and regardless of the God of primitive Christians and of Heathen idols, setting up angels and departed saints, or consecrated waters, as protectors of countries, cities, and societies, and as harassed by the Saracens, and afterwards more terribly by the Turks, who have conquered the west of Asia, north of Africa, and south-east of Europe; and who will be ruined in their attempt to dispossess the returned Jews of their country in the beginning of the millennium, about the very time that the Lord shall destroy Antichrist

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XI.—Infinitely perfect is God’s insight into futurities. Often riches are kept for the hurt of the owners! Yea, all things here are but vanity and vexation of spirit! While God in his providences sets up one and pulls down another, exactly answerable to his purpose, men’s lusts render this world a tremendous scene of ravage and murder. And God often exalts the worst of men to render them scourges to sinners, and especially his own people. And none are more bitter persecutors than apostates from the truth. While God singularly honours those that cleave to him in an evil day, he permits their opponents to rush forward in wickedness, till becoming impudent in impiety, he can no longer delay their tremendous destruction. And how marvellous a confirmation of our faith is it to find some scripture predictions of contingent events more particularly circumstantiated than in any particular history of them!