Daniel 11.10-The Prophecy of Seleucus III and Antiochus III Seeking to Regain Lost Prestige By Military Conquest
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday April 17, 2014
Daniel: Daniel 11:10-The Prophecy of Seleucus III and Antiochus III Seeking to Regain Lost Prestige By Military Conquest
Lesson # 327
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 11:2.
Daniel 11:2 “Now, at this present time, I must reveal to you the truth. Behold, three future kings will ascend to power for Persia. Then, the fourth will cause greater riches to make him wealthier than each and every one of these in comparison. However, when he amasses power through his wealth, the entire nation will stir up the Greek kingdom. 3 Next, a powerful king will ascend to power so that he will rule with great authority with the result that he will do according to his desire. 4 However, after he ascends to power, his kingdom will be broken up. Then, it will be divided towards the heaven’s four winds but not for the benefit of his posterity and in addition, not according to his sovereign will which he sovereignly exercised. For his kingdom will be uprooted specifically, for the benefit of others, to the separation and exclusion of these. 5 Then, the king ruling the south as well as one of his subordinate commanders will be strong. In fact, he will become stronger than him because he will exercise authority over a dominion greater than his dominion. 6 Next, at the end of an unspecified number of years, they will form an alliance as the daughter of the king ruling the south will enter into marriage with the king ruling the north in order to secure a peaceful arrangement. However, she will by no means retain her powerful position likewise he will by no means endure, namely his power. For she will be delivered over as well as he who caused her to enter into marriage, as well as her child and in addition, her benefactor during those times. 7 But one of the branches from her roots will ascend to power in his place. Then, he will wage an attack against their army so that he will enter the fortress of the king ruling the north. Indeed, he will take action against them so that he will be victorious. 8 Consequently, he will also cause their gods to be transported into captivity to Egypt along with their cast images, as well as their valuable silver and gold articles. Furthermore, for some years he will withdraw from the king ruling the north. 9 Then, he will wage an attack against the king ruling the south but will return to his land.” (My translation)
Daniel 11:10 “His sons will mobilize and assemble a multitude of great forces; and one of them will keep on coming and overflow and pass through, that he may again wage war up to his very fortress.” (NASB95)
This verse presents the next prophet event which will take place after the events predicted by the angel in Daniel 11:9.
“His sons” refers to the sons of the king of the north who according to Daniel 11:9 waged an unsuccessful attack against the king of the south.
“Will mobilize” is the verb gā·rā(h) (גָּרָה) (gaw-raw´), which means “to provoke hostilities, to initiate a hostile military action” against another nation.
Here it is of course used of the sons of the king ruling the north “provoking hostilities, initiating hostile military action” against the king ruling the south.
“And assemble a multitude of great forces” explains specifically the previous statement that the sons of the king of the north will initiate military action against the king of the south.
“Assemble” is the verb ʾā·sǎp̄ (אָסַף) (aw-saf´), which means “to assemble, to muster” referring to the sons of the king of the north “assembling” or “mustering” a large army to fight against the forces of the king of the south.
“A multitude of great forces” refers to military forces mustered by the sons of the king of the north which were not only a multitude but were skilled in combat.
“One of them will keep on coming” is composed of the verb bô(ʾ) (בּוֹא) (bo) and then we have the qal active infinitive absolute form of the verb bô(ʾ) (בּוֹא) (bo) which together are translated “will keep on coming.”
The verb bô(ʾ) means “to wage an attack” referring to the sons of the king of the north “waging an attack against” the army of the king of the south.
The verb is in the singular, which is significant since all the verbs up to this point in the verse have been in the plural referring to the two sons of the king of the north.
So here the verb bô(ʾ) is in the singular indicating that only one of the sons of the king of the north will wage an attack against the king of the south.
Once again we have the verb bô(ʾ) which again means “to wage an attack.”
However, this time we have the infinitive absolute form of this verb which means that it stands before the finite verb of the same root in order to intensify the certainty or force of the verbal idea.
Here the infinitive absolute form bô(ʾ) intensifies the qal perfect form of the verb expressing the certainty that only one of the sons of the king of the north will wage an attack against the king of the south.
It is also emphasizing that this attack will be a massive invasion as indicated by the multitude of great forces mustered for this attack.
“And overflow and pass through” presents the result of the sons of the king of the north mustering a multitude of great military forces in order to wage a massive attack against the king of the south.
It denotes that the sons of the king of the north will muster a multitude of great military forces in order that one of them will wage a massive attack against the king of the south so that one of these sons will pass through the land of the king of the south like a great flood.
“That he may again” presents the result of one of the sons of the king of the north leading a massive army which overflows, yes passes through the territory governed by the king of the south like a flood.
“He may again” is the verb šûḇ (שׁוּב) (shoob), which means “to turn back” referring to one of the sons of the king of the north “turning back” the army of the king of the south indicating that the territory taken from the king of the north by the king of the south was “taken back” by the king of the north.
“Wage war up to his very fortress” advances upon the previous statement and intensifies it.
Thus, the advancement and the intensification is that the attack waged against the king of the south by one of the sons of the king of the north will go as far as the fortress of the king of the south.
Daniel 11:10 “Following this, his sons will initiate hostile military action. Specifically, they will muster a multitude of great military forces. Then, he will wage a massive attack so that he will overflow, yes, pass through like a flood with the result that he will turn him back. Indeed, he will engage in hostile military action up to his fortress.” (My translation)
In Daniel 11:10, the angel tells Daniel that following the king of the north’s failed attack against the king of the south, the sons of the king of the north initiate hostile military action against the king of the south.
The angelic being then specifies what he means by this informing Daniel that these two sons will muster a multitude of great forces.
Then, one of the sons will wage a massive attack against the king of the north.
The result of this massive invasion is that one of the sons of the king of the north will lead this massive army that will like a flood overflow, yes pass through the territory governed by the king of the south.
The result of this is that this son will turn back the king of the south meaning he will recapture territory lost by his father in the previous war with the king of the south.
The angel then advances upon this informing Daniel that this son will engage in hostile military action up to the fortress of the king of the south.
This also was fulfilled in history.
First of all, the king of the north refers to Seleucus II Callinicus and the king of the south is Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-204 B.C.).
The two sons of the king of the north were Seleucus III Ceranunus (also called Soter) who reigned for only three years (227-223 B.C.) and Antiochus III the Great who reigned for thirty seven years (223-187 B.C.).
When Seleucus III Ceranunus was killed, the army placed his eighteen year old brother, Antiochus III on the throne.
These two sons of the sons of Seleucus II Callinicus were seeking to restore the lost prestige of their father’s Syrian kingdom.
The older son, Seleucus III Ceranunus invaded Asia Minor and the younger son, Antiochus III attacked Egypt.
Egypt had controlled all the territory north to the borders of Syria which included the land of Israel.
Antiochus III was successful in driving back the Eygptians back to the southern borders of Israel during his campaign in 219-217 B.C.
In the process, he gained control of Israel. Antiochus III was called “the Great” because of his great conquests since his efforts strengthened the Seleucid Empire.
His forces had reclaimed the territories lost to Ptolemy III Euergetes who was succeeded by Ptolemy IV Philopater.
Constable writes “All of this prediction did not just prove that God can anticipate history by hundreds of years, an amazing fact in itself. It also set the stage for events in the Holy Land, which was the primary concern of this revelation to Daniel.”