Daniel 11:17

11:1-30 The angel shows Daniel the succession of the Persian and Grecian empires. The kings of Egypt and Syria are noticed: Judea was between their dominions, and affected by their contests. From ver. 5-30, is generally considered to relate to the events which came to pass during the continuance of these governments; and from ver. 21, to relate to Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a cruel and violent persecutor of the Jews. See what decaying, perishing things worldly pomp and possessions are, and the power by which they are gotten. God, in his providence, sets up one, and pulls down another, as he pleases. This world is full of wars and fightings, which come from men's lusts. All changes and revolutions of states and kingdoms, and every event, are plainly and perfectly foreseen by God. No word of God shall fall to the ground; but what he has designed, what he has declared, shall infallibly come to pass. While the potsherds of the earth strive with each other, they prevail and are prevailed against, deceive and are deceived; but those who know God will trust in him, and he will enable them to stand their ground, bear their cross, and maintain their conflict.

He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom,.... Antiochus, having conquered Coelesyria, Phoenicia, and Judea, should set his face towards the land of Egypt, having a greedy desire after it, and bend his mind and forces that way; form a design of invading it, and for that purpose determine to bring all the forces he could master together throughout his dominions. So Justin (b) says, that upon the death of Ptolemy Philopator, Antiochus king of Syria determined to seize on Egypt.

The Vulgate Latin version is, "that he might come to lay hold on his whole kingdom"; to seize the whole kingdom of the king of Egypt: and upright ones with him: meaning, as many think, the Jews, so called to distinguish them from the Heathens, and even from those Jews who had took on the side of Ptolemy, and had changed their religion; but these persevered in it, which Antiochus approved of; and had now a great opinion of them, and had bestowed many favours upon them, as before observed; wherefore he might take some of them, and they might choose to go with him on this expedition, and especially to assist in his intended agreement with the king of Egypt, and the marriage of his daughter to him; in bringing about which they were to have a concern, as being reckoned men of probity and uprightness: or rather the sense is, according to the Vulgate Latin version, and he shall do right things; in show and appearance: or "he shall make agreement", or peace, as Aben Ezra; enter into covenants of alliance and marriage, upon seeming just conditions, with a great show of sincerity and uprightness: thus shall he do; in the following manner: or, "and he shall do" (c); that is, succeed in his proposals: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her; this was the stratagem he used; finding he could not obtain the kingdom of Egypt by force of arms, for fear of the Romans, who were the guardians of the king of Egypt, he proposed to give his daughter Cleopatra to him in marriage,

(17) He shall also.— He has further plans for subduing the dominions of the southern king. He brings together all the forces he can amass, and then attempts by means of a political marriage to establish peace; but this also proves a failure. Upright ones.—Literally, all that is right; hence the words have been explained, “straightforward pleas”. If “persons” are intended, it is not impossible that there may be a hint at the Jews taking the part of the northern king in the contest. Daughter of women—i.e., a woman. (Comp. the phrase “son of man,” Ezekiel 2:1.) The rest of the verse is obscure. It seems to mean that the consequence of this marriage was the destruction of the woman mentioned. Or it is possible that “her” refers to the southern kingdom. St. Jerome explains it, “ut evertat Ptolemœum sive regnum ejus.” This has been supposed to point to the marriage of Ptolemy Epiphanes with Cleopatra, the daughter of Antiochus the Great. However, the language is very general. (Comp. Daniel 11:6.) But she shall not stand.—These words form an explanatory clause, meaning that the plan will not answer.

He shall also {g} set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the {h} daughter of women, corrupting {i} her: but {k} she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. (g) This was the second battle that Antiochus fought against Ptolemais Epiphanes. (h) That is, a beautiful woman who was Cleopatra, Antiochus' daughter. (i) For he did not regard the life of his daughter in respect of the kingdom of Egypt. (k) She will not agree to his wicked counsel, but will love her husband, as her duty requires, and not seek his destruction.

He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom; he shall use all the force and fraud he can to master Egypt, and engross it to himself, because Ptolemy was then young, and not able to match him. And upright ones with him, i.e. many of the religions Jews joined with him, Numbers 23:10 , called righteous in opposition to the rest of his army, which was composed of idolaters, and a profane rabble of rude heathens. He shall give him the daughter of women, i.e. Antiochus shall give Cleopatra his daughter, who was young, to young Ptolemy, called the daughter of women for her beauty, and rare parts, which she afterwards discovered; and gave in dowry with her Coelosyria, Phoenice, and Judea, dividing the tribute and revenues between them. But she shall not stand on his side: as Saul gave Michal to David to be a snare to her husband, to betray him and destroy him, but she stuck to her husband’s interest, and not her father’s.

Daniel 11:17. He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom — Or rather, He shall also set his face to enter, by force, the whole kingdom: and upright ones with him; thus shall he do — If this translation be right, the upright ones here intended are the Jews who marched under his banners, and are so denominated to distinguish them from the other idolatrous soldiers. But the LXX. read, και ευθεια παντα μετ ’ αυτου ποιησει , he shall make all things right, or straight, or make agreement with him, that is, with Ptolemy. So also the Vulgate. Antiochus would have seized upon the kingdom of Egypt by force; but fearing, according to Appian, if he did so, he should bring the Romans upon him, he judged it better to proceed by stratagem, and to carry on his designs by treaty rather than by arms. He therefore proposed a marriage between his own daughter Cleopatra and King Ptolemy, now sixteen years old, to be consummated when they should come of age; which offer, made by Eucles of Rhodes, was accepted, and a contract fully agreed between them. Thus the text, And he shall give him the daughter of women — His daughter, so called, as being one of the most eminent and beautiful of women. He himself afterward conducted her to Raphia, where they were married; and gave in dowry with her the provinces of Cœlosyria and Palestine, upon condition of the revenues being equally divided between the two kings.

All this he transacted with a fraudulent intention, corrupting, or to corrupt, her, and induce her to betray her husband’s interests to her father. But his designs did not take effect: for it is here said, she shall not stand on his part, neither be for him — Ptolemy and his generals were aware of Antiochus’s artifices, and therefore stood upon their guard; and Cleopatra herself affected more the cause of her husband than of her father, insomuch that, as Livy relates, (lib. xxxvii, cap. 3,) she joined with her husband in an embassy to the Romans, to congratulate them upon their victories over her father, and to exhort them, after they had expelled him out of Greece, to prosecute the war in Asia, assuring them, at the same time, that the king and queen of Egypt would readily obey the commands of the senate.

17. set his face—purpose steadfastly. Antiochus purpose was, however, turned from open assault to wile, by his war with the Romans in his endeavor to extend his kingdom to the limits it had under Seleucus Nicator. upright one—Jasher, or Jeshurun (De 32:15; Isa 44:2); the epithet applied by the Hebrews to their nation. It is here used not in praise; for in Da 11:14 (see on [1104]Da 11:14) they are called "robbers," or "men of violence, factious": it is the general designation of Israel, as having God for their God. Probably it is used to rebuke those who ought to have been God's "upright ones" for confederating with godless heathen in acts of violence (the contrast to the term in Da 11:14 favors this). thus shall he do—Instead of at once invading Ptolemy's country with his "whole strength," he prepares his way for doing so by the following plan: he gives to Ptolemy Epiphanes his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, promising Cœlo-Syria and Judea as a dowry, thus securing his neutrality in the war with Rome: he hoped through his daughter to obtain Syria, Cilicia, and Lycia, and even Egypt itself at last; but Cleopatra favored her husband rather than her father, and so defeated his scheme [Jerome]. "She shall not stand on his side."

17 . And he shall set his face —i.e. purpose, plan ( 2 Kings 12:17 ; Jeremiah 42:15 ; Jeremiah 42:17 ; Jeremiah 44:12 )— to come with the strength , &c.] to advance with all his force against Egypt. Livy (xxxiii. 19) describes how, in the spring of 197, omnibus regni viribus connixus, quum ingentes copias terrestres maritimasque comparasset , Antiochus himself set out with a fleet for the purpose of attacking all the cities on the coast of Cilicia, Lycia, and Caria, which were subject to Ptolemy. He did not actually invade Egypt, nor does the present verse say that he would do so. and upright ones with him; thus shall he do ] the words yield no sense: read, with very slight changes, but shall make an agreement (see Daniel 11:6 ) with him : so LXX. Theod. Vulg. (cf. R.V. marg. ). He did not carry out his intention, but found it convenient to come to terms with Ptolemy ( φιλίαν καὶ σπονδὰς πρὸς τὸν Πτολεμαῖον ἐποιήσατο , Jos. Ant. xii. iv. 1). Antiochus had his eye on Asia Minor, and even on Europe: but being opposed by the Romans, he was glad to be on good terms with Egypt; he accordingly betrothed his daughter Cleopatra to Ptolemy Epiphanes, promising that she should receive as her dowry what was afterwards understood by the Egyptians to be the provinces of Cœle-Syria, Phœnicia, and Palestine, though this was denied before the Roman legates by Antiochus Epiphanes (Polyb. xxviii. 17, who appears to think that Antiochus Epiphanes was right)[366].

The marriage actually took place in the winter of 194–3, Antiochus taking his daughter to Raphia for the purpose (Livy xxxv. 13). [366] The dowry seems in fact to have been not the provinces themselves, but their revenues (Wilcken [see p. 178 n. ]; Mahaffy, p. 306). Cleopatra’s betrothal is alluded to in Polyb. xviii. 51 end (whence Livy xxxiii. 40): in reply to the Roman legates who were sent to him in 196 at Lysimacheia (in Thrace) to demand (among other things) that he should restore the cities taken from Ptolemy, Antiochus replied that he was on friendly terms with Ptolemy, ‘et id agere se, ut brevi etiam affinitas jungatur .’ and he shall give him the daughter of women ] his daughter Cleopatra. corrupting her ] a very improbable rendering: Cleopatra was not (as was the case with many of the queens of the Ptolemies) her husband’s sister; and (Mahaffy, p. 330) she “bears an excellent character in Egyptian history.” Keil renders to destroy her ; but Cleopatra, so far as we know, lived happily in Egypt, and died a natural death. The only reasonable rendering is to destroy it ,—the pronoun being referred ad sensum to Egypt.