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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Daniel 11:1-4

Here, 1. The angel Gabriel lets Daniel know the good service he has done to the Jewish nation (Dan. 11:1): ?In the first year of Darius the Mede, who destroyed Babylon and released the Jews out of that house of bondage, I stood a strength and fortress to him, that is, I was instrumental to protect him, and give him success in his ward, and, after he had conquered Babylon, to confirm him in his resolution to release the Jews,? which, it is likely, met with much opposition. Thus by the angel,... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Daniel 11:5-20

Here are foretold, I. The rise and power of two great kingdoms out of the remains of Alexander's conquests, Dan. 11:5. 1. The kingdom of Egypt, which was made considerable by Ptolemaeus Lagus, one of Alexander's captains, whose successors were, from him, called the Lagidae. He is called the king of the south, that is, Egypt, named here, Dan. 11:8, 42, 43. The countries that at first belonged to Ptolemy are reckoned to be Egypt, Phoenicia, Arabia, Libya, Ethiopia, etc. Theocr. Idyl. 17. 2. The... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Daniel 11:21-45

All this is a prophecy of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, the little horn spoken of before (Dan. 8:9) a sworn enemy to the Jewish religion, and a bitter persecutor of those that adhered to it. What troubles the Jews m 8000 et with in the reigns of the Persian kings were not so particularly foretold to Daniel as these, because then they had living prophets with them, Haggai and Zechariah, to encourage them; but these troubles in the days of Antiochus were foretold, because, before that time,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 11:1

Also I, in the first year of Darius the Mede ,.... These words more properly belong to the preceding chapter, and should have concluded that, and the "eleventh" chapter should have begun in the next verse; and they are not the words of Daniel, as Jerom and others; but of the angel telling Daniel, not only what he had been lately doing, and would do in the court of Persia for his people; but what he had done in the beginning of that monarchy, the very first year that Darius the Mede became... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 11:2

And now will I show thee the truth ,.... And nothing but the truth; what will most certainly come to pass, and may be depended on, even what is written in the book of God's decrees, "the Scripture of truth", and which would appear in Providence in later times; and this he proposed to deliver to him, not in figurative, dark, and obscure expressions, but clearly and plainly, in language easy to be understood: behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia ; which were Cyrus, who... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible 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 , that shall rule... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 11:4

And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken ,.... When Alexander was risen up to his highest pitch of grandeur, was sole monarch of the world, in the height of his ambition, in the prime of his days, he was cut off by death; his kingdom remained no more one, but became many, was seized by different persons, his generals, and so broke to pieces: and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven ; which seem to have respect to the four horns or kings, which came up in his... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 11:5

And the king of the south shall be strong ,.... That is, the king of Egypt, which lay south to Syria, as Syria lay north to Egypt; and therefore the king of the one is called the king of the south, and the other the king of the north, throughout this prophecy; and by the king of the south, or Egypt, is here meant Ptolemy Lagus, one of Alexander's generals, who had Egypt for his share; and a very powerful king he was; for he reigned over Egypt, Lybia, Cyrene, Ethiopia, Arabia, Phoenicia,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 11:6

And in the end of years they shall join themselves together ,.... The two kings of Egypt and Syria; not the two former kings, but their successors: the king of Egypt was Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of Egypt, the son of Ptolemy Lagus; this is the king of Egypt who collected such a vast number of books into his library at Alexandria, and got the law of Moses translated into Greek: the king of Syria was Antiochus, surnamed Theos; this name was first given him by the Milesians, upon... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 11:7

But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate ,.... Or, "out of a branch of her roots a shoot thereof shall stand or rise up" F24 כנו "plantatio ejus", V. L. ; by "her roots" are meant her ancestors, particularly Ptolemy Lagus; by "a branch" from thence, Ptolemy Philadelphus her father; and by the "shoot" out of that, or its plantation, as the Vulgate Latin version, is designed her brother, Ptolemy Euergetes; who succeeded her father in the kingdom, and stood firm... read more

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