Daniel 11
Living Bible
11 “I was the one sent to strengthen and help Darius the Mede in the first year of his reign. 2 But now I will show you what the future holds. Three more Persian kings will reign, to be succeeded by a fourth,[a] far richer than the others. Using his wealth for political advantage, he will plan total war against Greece.
3 “Then a mighty king will rise in Greece, a king who will rule a vast kingdom and accomplish everything he sets out to do.[b] 4 But at the zenith of his power, his kingdom will break apart and be divided into four weaker nations, not even ruled by his sons. For his empire will be torn apart and given to others. 5 One of them, the king of Egypt,[c] will increase in power, but this king’s own officials will rebel against him and take away his kingdom and make it still more powerful.
6 “Several years later an alliance will be formed between the king of Syria[d] and the king of Egypt. The daughter of the king of Egypt will be given in marriage to the king of Syria as a gesture of peace, but she will lose her influence over him, and not only will her hopes be blighted, but those of her father, the king of Egypt, and of her ambassador and child. 7 But when her brother[e] takes over as king of Egypt, he will raise an army against the king of Syria and march against him and defeat him. 8 When he returns again to Egypt, he will carry back their idols with him, along with priceless gold and silver dishes; and for many years afterward he will leave the Syrian king alone.
9 “Meanwhile, the king of Syria[f] will invade Egypt briefly but will soon return again to his own land. 10-11 However, the sons of this Syrian king will assemble a mighty army that will overflow across Israel into Egypt, to a fortress there. Then the king of Egypt,[g] in great anger, will rally against the vast forces of Syria and defeat them. 12 Filled with pride after this great victory, he will have many thousands of his enemies killed, but his success will be short-lived.
13 “A few years later the Syrian king[h] will return with a fully equipped army far greater than the one he lost, 14 and other nations will join him in a crusade against Egypt. Insurgents among your own people, the Jews, will join them, thus fulfilling prophecy,[i] but they will not succeed. 15 Then the Syrian king and his allies will come and lay siege to a fortified city of Egypt and capture it, and the proud armies of Egypt will go down to defeat.
16 “The Syrian king will march onward unopposed; none will be able to stop him. And he will also enter ‘The Glorious Land’ of Israel and pillage it. 17 This will be his plot for conquering all Egypt: he, too, will form an alliance with the Egyptian king, giving him a daughter in marriage, so that she can work for him from within. But the plan will fail.
18 “After this he will turn his attention to the coastal cities and conquer many. But a general will stop him and cause him to retreat in shame. 19 He will turn homeward again but will have trouble on the way and disappear.
20 “His successor[j] will be remembered as the king who sent a tax collector into Israel, but after a very brief reign, he will die mysteriously, though neither in battle nor in riot.
21 “Next to come to power will be an evil man not directly in line for royal succession.[k] But during a crisis he will take over the kingdom by flattery and intrigue. 22 Then all opposition will be swept away before him, including a leader of the priests.[l] 23 His promises will be worthless. From the first his method will be deceit; with a mere handful of followers, he will become strong. 24 He will enter the richest areas of the land without warning and do something never done before: he will take the property and wealth of the rich and scatter it out among the people. With great success he will besiege and capture powerful strongholds throughout his dominions, but this will last for only a short while. 25 Then he will stir up his courage and raise a great army against Egypt; and Egypt, too, will raise a mighty army, but to no avail, for plots against him will succeed.
26 “Those of his own household will bring his downfall; his army will desert, and many will be killed.
27 “Both these kings[m] will be plotting against each other at the conference table, attempting to deceive each other. But it will make no difference, for neither can succeed until God’s appointed time has come.
28 “The Syrian king will then return home with great riches, first marching through Israel and destroying it. 29 Then at the predestined time he will once again turn his armies southward, as he had threatened, but now it will be a very different story from those first two occasions. 30-31 For Roman warships[n] will scare him off, and he will withdraw and return home. Angered by having to retreat, the Syrian king will again pillage Jerusalem and pollute the sanctuary, putting a stop to the daily sacrifices, and worshiping idols inside the Temple. He will leave godless Jews in power when he leaves—men who have abandoned their fathers’ faith. 32 He will flatter those who hate the things of God[o] and win them over to his side. But the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things.
33 “Those with spiritual understanding will have a wide ministry of teaching in those days. But they will be in constant danger, many of them dying by fire and sword, or being jailed and robbed. 34 Eventually these pressures will subside, and some ungodly men will come, pretending to offer a helping hand, only to take advantage of them.
35 “And some who are most gifted in the things of God will stumble in those days and fall, but this will only refine and cleanse them and make them pure until the final end of all their trials, at God’s appointed time.
36 “The king will do exactly as he pleases, claiming to be greater than every god there is, even blaspheming the God of gods, and prospering—until his time is up. For God’s plans are unshakable. 37 He will have no regard for the gods of his fathers, nor for the god beloved of women,[p] nor any other god, for he will boast that he is greater than them all. 38 Instead of these, he will worship the Fortress god[q]—a god his fathers never knew—and lavish on him costly gifts! 39 Claiming this god’s help, he will have great success against the strongest fortresses. He will honor those who submit to him, appointing them to positions of authority and dividing the land to them as their reward.
40 “Then at the time of the end,[r] the king of the south will attack him again, and the northern king will react with the strength and fury of a whirlwind; his vast army and navy will rush out to bury him with their might. 41 He will invade various lands on the way, including Israel, the Pleasant Land, and overthrow the governments of many nations. Moab, Edom, and most of Ammon will escape, 42 but Egypt and many other lands will be occupied. 43 He will capture all the treasures of Egypt, and the Libyans and Ethiopians shall be his servants.
44 “But then news from the east and north will alarm him, and he will return in great anger to destroy as he goes. 45 He will halt between Jerusalem and the sea and there pitch his royal tents, but while he is there his time will suddenly run out, and there will be no one to help him.
Footnotes
- Daniel 11:2 by a fourth, perhaps Xerxes (486–465 B.C.) who launched an all-out effort against Greece.
- Daniel 11:3 and accomplish everything he sets out to do. Doubtless Alexander the Great.
- Daniel 11:5 the king of Egypt, literally, “the southern king”—Ptolemy II.
- Daniel 11:6 the king of Syria, literally, “the king of the north,” and so also throughout this passage. These prophecies seem to have been fulfilled many years later in the Seleucid wars between Egypt and Syria. as a gesture of peace. In 252 B.C. Ptolemy II of Egypt gave his daughter Berenice in marriage to Antiochus II of Syria to conclude a treaty of peace between their two lands.
- Daniel 11:7 when her brother, literally, “from a branch.” Berenice, murdered in Antioch by Antiochus II’s former wife, Laodice, was the sister of Ptolemy III, who now ascended the Egyptian throne and declared war against the Seleucids to avenge his sister’s murder.
- Daniel 11:9 the king of Syria, Seleucus II.
- Daniel 11:10 the king of Egypt, Ptolemy IV.
- Daniel 11:13 the Syrian king, possibly Antiochus III the Great, who was later defeated by the Romans at Magnesia; compare v. 18.
- Daniel 11:14 thus fulfilling prophecy, literally, “in order to fulfill the vision.”
- Daniel 11:20 His successor. Seleucus IV, successor to Antiochus III, sent Heliodorus to rob and desecrate the Temple in Jerusalem.
- Daniel 11:21 Next to come to power will be an evil man not directly in line for royal succession. This may refer to Antiochus IV Epiphanes who, when his brother Seleucus was assassinated, ingratiated himself with the Romans and took over.
- Daniel 11:22 including a leader of the priests, probably Jason, treacherously removed by the Hellenist Menelaus.
- Daniel 11:27 Both these kings, probably Antiochus IV and Ptolemy IV.
- Daniel 11:30 For Roman warships, or “From Cyprus.” pollute the sanctuary, by offering swine on the altar. This event was fulfilled in 168–167 B.C. worshiping idols inside the Temple, literally, “they shall set up the abomination that astonished.”
- Daniel 11:32 He will flatter those who hate the things of God. Menelaus, the High Priest, who conspired with Antiochus against the Jews who were loyal to God’s laws. But the people who know their God, perhaps the valiant Maccabees and their sympathizers. But a further fulfillment may lie in the future.
- Daniel 11:37 the god beloved of women, probably Tammuz-Adonis, whose worship was popular among women; compare Ezekiel 8:14.
- Daniel 11:38 the Fortress god, literally, “the god of Fortresses.”
- Daniel 11:40 at the time of the end. The prophecy takes a turn here. Antiochus IV fades from view, and the Antichrist of the last days becomes the center of attention from this point on.
Daniel 11
Orthodox Jewish Bible
11 Also I, in the shnat achat of Daryavesh the Mede, I stood to support and to strengthen him.
2 And now will I show thee the emes. Hinei, yet shloshah melachim will arise in Paras (Persia); and the fourth shall with osher gadol (great richness) be abundantly rich above all; and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Yavan (Greece).
3 And a melech gibbor shall arise, that shall rule with mimshal rav (great dominion), and do kirtzono (according to his will).
4 And when he shall arise, his malchut (kingdom) shall be broken, and shall be divided to the araba ruchot HaShomayim; and not to his posterity, nor according to his rule which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others apart from these [see Daniel 8:8].
5 And HaMelech HaNegev (the King of the South) shall be strong, and one of his sarim (princes), and he shall be strong above him, and will rule; a great rule is his rule.
6 And at the end of some shanim they shall join themselves together as allies; for the daughter of HaMelech HaNegev shall come unto the Melech HaTzafon (King of the North) to make an agreement; but she shall not retain the koach hazero’a; neither shall he stand, nor his zero’a, but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that fathered her, and he that strengthened her in those times.
7 But out of a netzer of her roots shall one stand up in his place, which shall come unto an army, and shall enter into the stronghold of HaMelech HaTzafon, and shall deal with them, and shall show strength;
8 And also their g-ds with their molten images and with their precious vessels of silver and gold he will bring into captivity to Mitzrayim; and he shall refrain some shanim from (attacking) HaMelech HaTzafon.
9 So he (HaMelech HaTzafon) shall come into his kingdom of HaMelech HaNegev and shall return into his own land.
10 But his banim shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces; and he shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through; then shall he return, and shall stir himself up, even to his fortress.
11 And HaMelech HaNegev shall be moved with rage, and shall go forth and fight with him, even with HaMelech HaTzafon; and he shall raise a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand.
12 And the multitude shall be carried away; his lev shall be lifted up; and he shall cause thousands to fall, but will not be strong.
13 For HaMelech HaTzafon shall again raise a multitude, greater than the former, and at the end of some shanim he will certainly come with a great army and with great substance;
14 And in those times many shall stand up against HaMelech HaNegev; also the sons of the transgressors of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall stumble.
15 So HaMelech HaTzafon shall come, and shall cast up an entrenchment, and shall take a fortified city; and the forces of the South shall not stand, even their choicest troops, and there is no power to stand.
16 But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him; and he shall stand in Eretz HaTzevi (Beautiful Land), and destruction (shall be) in his hand.
17 He shall also set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and an agreement is with him; and he shall make it; and he shall give him the daughter of women to destroy it, but she shall not stand, neither be for him.
18 After he turns his face unto the isles, and shall take many, a magistrate shall cause his reproach to cease for him except that his reproach shall return to him.
19 Then he shall turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall, and will not be found.
20 Then shall stand up in his place one who causes an exactor to pass through for the glory of the malchut, but within a few yamim he shall be broken, neither in anger, nor in battle.
21 And in his place shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the glory of the malchut but he shall come in unawares, and obtain the kingdom by intrigues.
22 And an overwhelming army will be swept away before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the Nagid Brit.
23 And after the league made with him he shall practice deceit, for he shall go up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter unawares even into the fattest of the provinces; and he shall do that which his avot have not done, nor his avot of his avot; he shall scatter among them the spoil and booty and possessions, yea, and he shall plan his devices against the strongholds, even for a time.
25 And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the Melech HaNegev with a great army; and HaMelech HaNegev shall be stirred up for battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand; for they shall devise devices against him.
26 Yea, they that eat of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow, and many shall fall down slain.
27 And the hearts of both of these melachim shall be for evil, and they shall speak lies at one shulchan, but it shall not prosper; for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.
28 Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his lev shall be against the Brit Kodesh; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land.
29 At the time appointed he shall return, and come again to the South; but it shall not be as at the first so at the last.
30 For the ships of Kittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be disheartened and shall return, and rage against the Brit Kodesh so shall he do; he shall even return, and will fix his attention upon those that forsake the Brit Kodesh.
31 And forces from him will stand, and they shall desecrate the Mikdash, the Citadel, and shall do away with HaTamid, and set up the Shikkutz MeShomem.
32 And such as do wickedly against the Brit shall he pervert in intrigue, but the people who know their G-d shall be strong and will do.
33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and through despoilment for many yamim.
34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help, but many shall cleave to them in intrigue.
35 And some of them of understanding shall fall to try them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end, because it is yet for a time appointed.
36 And HaMelech shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every g-d, and shall speak monstous things against the G-d of g-ds, and shall prosper till the wrath be accomplished; for that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the g-d of his avot, nor the desire of women, nor regard any g-d, for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his place shall he honor the g-d of fortresses, and a g-d whom his avot knew not shall he honor with zahav, and kesef, and with precious stones, and things desired.
39 Thus shall he do to the fortresses of the strongholds with the help of a foreign g-d, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall distribute the land for a price.
40 And at the time of the end shall HaMelech HaNegev butt against him, and HaMelech HaTzafon shall storm against him with chariots, and with parash, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the Eretz HaTzevi, and many will stumble, but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moav, and the chief of the bnei Ammon.
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, and Eretz Mitzrayim shall not escape.
43 But he shall rule over the deposits of zahav and of kesef, and over all the desired things of Mitzrayim; and the Libyans and the Cushites shall be at his heels.
44 But reports out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go forth with cheimah gedolah (great fury) to destroy, and to annihilate many.
45 And he shall plant the tents of his pavilion between the sea and the Har Tzevi Kodesh (Beautiful Holy Mountain); yet he shall come to his end, and there is none to help him.
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