Daniel 11:25 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 11:25
And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.
probably a force · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
stand
יַעֲמֹ֔דya.'a.Mod
H5975
to stand · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
forecast
יַחְשְׁב֥וּyach.she.Vu
H2803
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
devices
מַחֲשָׁבֽוֹתma.cha.sha.Vot
H4284
a contrivance · noun, common feminine plural absolute
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
Proverbs 28:25 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.
Proverbs 15:18 A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.
Daniel 11:2 And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all…
Daniel 11:10 But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass throu…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 11:21–end
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 met 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, prophecy would cease, and they would find it necessary to have recourse to the written word. Some things in this prediction concerning Antiochus are alluded to in the New Testament predictions of the antichris…
A fuller detail of what was summarily stated (Dan 11:22-24). This is the first of Antiochus' three (Dan 11:29) open invasions of Egypt.
against the king of the south--against Ptolemy Philometer. Subsequently, Ptolemy Physcon (the Gross), or Euergetes II, was made king by the Egyptians, as Ptolemy Philometer was in Antiochus hands.
great army--as distinguished from the "small people" (Dan 11:23) with which he first came. This was his first open expedition; he was emboldened by success to it. Antiochus "entered Egypt with an overwhelming multitude, with chariots, elephants, and cavalry" (1 Maccabees 1:17).
stirred up--by the necessity, though naturally indolent.
not stand--Philometer w…
He shall stir up his power - Antiochus marched against Ptolemy, the king of the south, (Egypt), with a great army; and the Egyptian generals had raised a mighty force.
Stirred up to battle - The two armies met between Pelusium and Mount Casius; but he (the king of the south) could not stand - the Egyptian army was defeated. The next campaign he had greater success; he routed the Egyptian army, took Memphis, and made himself master of all Egypt, except Alexandria, see 1 Maccabees 1:16-19. And all these advantages he gained by forecasting devices; probably by corrupting his ministers and captains. Ptolemy Macron gave up Cyprus to Antiochus; and the Alexandrians were led to renounce their alleg…
The Church Fathers
The first book of the Maccabees relates this assault on Egypt: "Antiochus came to Egypt with a mighty host and with chariots, elephants, horses and a great expedition and battled against Ptolemy, king of Egypt. Ptolemy fled, and many of his soldiers were wounded and fell. Antiochus captured the fortresses of Egypt and plundered Egypt."
Verses 25, 26. "And his strength and his heart shall be stirred up against the king of the South with a great army. And the king of the South shall be aroused to war with many and very strong auxiliary forces; and they shall not stand, for they shall form designs against him. And they that eat bread with him shall destroy him, and his army shall be crushed, and many shall fall down slain." Porphyry interprets this as applying to Antiochus, who set forth with a great army on a campaign against his sister's son. But the king of the South, that is the generals of Ptolemy, were also roused to war with many and very powerful auxiliary forces, but they could not stand against the fraudulent schemes of Antiochus. For he pretended to be at peace with his sister's son and ate bread with him, and afterwards he took possession of Egypt. But those of our view with greater plausibility interpret all this as applying to the Antichrist, for he is to be born of the Jewish people and come from Babylon, and is first of all going to vanquish the king of Egypt, who is one of the three horns of which we have already spoken earlier.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
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…
Egypt · Called: The South — Called: The South
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).
And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army,.... That is, Antiochus shall arouse himself, and exert his courage, and gather a large and powerful army, and set out with them to fight with Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt; this is his second expedition into Egypt, as is observed in the Apocrypha:
"About the same time Antiochus prepared his second voyage into Egypt:'' (2 Maccabees 5:1)
before he went into Egypt more privately, with a few men, under a pretence of friendship; but now more openly as an enemy, with a large army; so it is said in the Apocrypha:
"17 Wherefore he entered into Egypt with a great multitude, with chariots, and elepha…
Daniel 11:25
25. And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.
25. Et excitabit robur suum, et cor suum adversus regem austri, cum exercitu magno: et rex austri irritabitur ad praelium cum exercitu magno, et robusto valde: et non stabit, quia cogitabunt contra eum cogitationes. [173]
The angel here announces how Antiochus Epiphanes after prevailing by fraud, should become bolder in his daring. He should venture to levy a hostile army and invade Egypt openly, without any further diss…
These verses describe the victorious war of the king who had come to power against the king of the south, the war of Antiochus Epiphanes against king Ptolemy Philometor, which is described in 1 Macc. 1:16-19, with manifest reference to this prophecy. ויער (he shall stir up) is potentialis in the sense of divine decree: "he shall stir up his power and his heart." כּח is not warlike power, which is mentioned in בּחיל־גּדול (Dan 11:25), but the power which consists in the bringing of a great army under his command; לבב, the mental energy for the carrying out of his plans. For יעמד לא, cf. Dan 8:4. The subject is the last-named king of the south, who, notwithstanding his very great and powerful…
The king of the south was Ptolemy VI Philometor (181–146 BC). Antiochus IV attacked Egypt twice between 170 and 168 BC (1 Maccabees 1:17-19).
Rashi on Daniel 11:25
and he will not stand the king of the south.
because they will devise plans against him They will plot against him to fell him through the bribery that they will bribe his officers to betray him, as he concludes: “and those who eat his food will break him.”
