Daniel 11:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 11:15
So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand.
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
north
הַצָּפ֔וֹןha.tza.Fon
H6828
properly · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
come
וְיָבֹא֙ve.ya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
up
וְיִשְׁפֹּךְ֙ve.yish.poKh
H8210
to spill forth (blood · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
mount
סֽוֹלֲלָ֔הso.la.Lah
H5550
a military mound · noun, common feminine singular absolute
take
וְלָכַ֖דve.la.Khad
H3920
to catch (in a net · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fenced
מִבְצָר֑וֹתmiv.tza.Rot
H4013
a fortification · noun, common feminine plural absolute
cities
עִ֣יר'ir
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · noun, common feminine singular construct
arms
וּזְרֹע֤וֹתu.ze.ro.'ot
H2220
the arm (as stretched out) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct
south
הַנֶּ֙גֶב֙ha.Ne.gev
H5045
the south (from its drought) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
withstand
יַעֲמֹ֔דוּya.'a.Mo.du
H5975
to stand · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
chosen
מִבְחָרָ֔יוmiv.cha.Rav
H4005
select · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
people
וְעַם֙ve.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
strength
כֹּ֖חַKo.ach
H3581
vigor · noun, common masculine singular absolute
withstand
לַעֲמֹֽדla.'a.Mod
H5975
to stand · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 6:6 For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly o…
Ezekiel 17:17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off m…
Joshua 1:5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail…
Proverbs 21:30-31 There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.
Ezekiel 4:2 And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams aga…
Jeremiah 5:10 Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’s.
Jeremiah 33:4 For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are t…
Jeremiah 52:4 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon c…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 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, Dan 11:42, Dan 11:43. The countries that at first belonged to Ptolemy are reckoned to be Egypt, Phoenicia, Arabia, Libya, Ethiopia, etc. Theocr. Idyl. 17. 2. The kingdom of Syria, which was set up by Seleucus Nicanor, or the conqueror; he was one of Alexander's princes, and became stronger than the other, and had the greatest dominion of all, was the…
king of . . . north--Antiochus the Great.
take . . . fenced cities--Scopas, the Egyptian general, met Antiochus at Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, and was defeated, and fled to Sidon, a strongly "fenced city," where he was forced to surrender.
chosen people--Egypt's choicest army was sent under Eropus, Menocles, and Damoxenus, to deliver Scopas, but in vain [JEROME].
Adam Clarke on Daniel 11:15
So the king of the north - Antiochus came to recover Judea. Scopas was sent by Ptolemy to oppose him; but he was defeated near the fountains of Jordan, and was obliged to take refuge in Sidon with ten thousand men. Antiochus pursued and besieged him; and he was obliged by famine to surrender at discretion, and their lives only were spared. Antiochus afterwards besieged several of the fenced cities, and took them; in short, carried all before him; so that the king of the south, Ptolemy, and his chosen people, his ablest generals, were not able to oppose him.
John Gill on Daniel 11:15
So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities,.... That is, Antiochus the great, king of Syria, should come into Coelesyria and Phoenicia, which was the part of the kingdom of Egypt he was to have by the league with Philip king of Macedon; and this is a prophecy of his expedition into those parts, and the success of it. Scopas, a general of Ptolemy, being sent by him into Coelesyria, had took many of the cities of it, and the land of Judea; but Antiochus, coming into those parts with his army, beat Scopas at the fountains of Jordan, and destroyed great part of his forces, and retook the cities of Coelesyria that Scopas had made himself master of, a…
The Church Fathers
"And another mighty king shall arise and he shall enter into the strongholds of the king of Egypt." [Daniel 11:3] For one named Antiochus became king of Syria. This one reigned in the one hundredth and thirtieth and seventh year of the kingdom of Greeks. And at this point, then in those times he engaged in war with Ptolemy king of Egypt, and having prevailed over him he ruled. This one, returning from Egypt, went up to Jerusalem in the one hundredth and forty-third year and taking all the treasures which were in the house of the Lord he went to Antioch. After these things happened in this way, two years later the king sent his own tax collector to compel the Jews in the cities of Judea to transgress the laws of their fathers and to be subjected to the decrees and laws of the king.
Verses 15, 16. "And the king of the North shall come, and shall cast up a mound and capture the best fortified cities, and the arms of the South shall not withstand. And his chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and they shall have no strength. And he shall come upon him and do according to his own desire, and there shall be none to stand against his face. And he shall stand in the glorious land and it shall be consumed by his hand." Purposing to retake Judaea and the many cities of Syria, Antiochus joined battle with Scopas, Ptolemy's general, near the sources of the Jordan near where the city now called Paneas was founded, and he put him to flight and besieged him in Sidon together with ten thousand of his soldiers. In order to free him, Ptolemy dispatched the famous generals, Eropus, Menocles and Damoxenus (Vulgate: Damoxeus). Yet he was unable to lift the siege, and finally Scopas, overcome by famine, had to surrender and was sent away with his associates, despoiled of all he had. And as for the statement, "He shall cast up a mound," this indicates that Antiochus is going to besiege the garrison of Scopas in the citadel of Jerusalem for a long time, while the Jews add their exertions as well. And he is going to capture other cities which had formerly been held by the Ptolemaic faction in Syria, Cilicia and Lycia (variant: Lydia). For at that time Aphrodisias, Soloe, Zephrion, Mallos, Anemurium (variant: Anemurum), Selenus, Coracesium, Coricus, Andriace, Lymira, Patara (variant: Patra), Xanthus, and finally Ephesus were all captured. These things are related by both Greek and Roman historians. And as for the statement, "And he shall stand in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed (or, finished) by his hand," the term "glorious land," or, as the Septuagint interprets it, "the land of desire" (that is, in which God takes pleasure) signifies Judaea, and particularly Jerusalem, to which Antiochus pursued those men of Scopas's party who had been honorably received there. Instead of the phrase, "glorious land," as Aquila rendered it, Theodotion simply puts the Hebrew word itself, Sabin; instead of that Symmachus translated it "land of bravery."
Dictionary and topics
Antiochus — The name of several Syrian kings from B.C. 280 to B.C. 65. The most notable of these were, (1.) Antiochus the Great, who ascended the throne B.C. 223. He is regarded as the “king of the north”…
Ptolemaeus, Or Ptolemy — was the common name of the Greek dynasty of Egyptian kings. PTOLEMAEUS I. SOTER, the son of Lagus, a Macedonian of low rank, distinguished himself greatly during the campaigns of Alexander; at whose…
Cities · Often fortified by art — Often fortified by art
Macedonian Empire, The · Predictions respecting: History of its four divisions — Predictions respecting: History of its four divisions
Syria · Prophecies respecting: Its history in connection with the Macedonia empire — Prophecies respecting: Its history in connection with the Macedonia empire
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Daniel 11:15
15. So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand.
15. Et veniet rex aquilonis et fundet aggerem, [165] et capiet urbem munitionum; et brachia austri, hoc est, AEgypti, non stabunt, neque populus electorum ejus, neque virtus erit ad standum.
The angel follows up the same sentiment. He says, When Antiochus the Great shall burst forth, there shall be no valor in the Egyptians to resist him, for he shall take a fortified city. There is a change of number here, for he means fortified cities. For he should recover t…
This thought is expanded and proved in these verses. - Dan 11:13. The king of the north returns to his own land, gathers a host together more numerous than before, and shall then, at the end of the times of years, come again with a more powerful army and with a great train. רכוּשׁ, that which is acquired, the goods, is the train necessary for the suitable equipment of the army-"the condition to a successful warlike expedition" (Kran.). The definition of time corresponding to the בּעתּים in Dan 11:6 is specially to be observed: שׁנים העתּים לקץ הע (at the end of times, years), in which שׁנים is to be interpreted (as ימים with שׁבעים, Dan 10:3-4, and other designations of time) as denoting tha…
At Paneas in 198 BC, the king of the north (Antiochus III) defeated the Egyptian general Scopas, besieged and captured Sidon, a fortified city, and took control of Palestine.
Rashi on Daniel 11:15
and the people of his chosen ones will be in the war.
will have no strength to stand before the king of the north, and although there is a superfluous “vav” here, it is customary for Scripture to speak in this manner as in, for example: “As for its nobles, there are none (וְאֵין) who proclaim the kingdom,” Isaiah (34:12).