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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Daniel 11:29 - 11:29
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In order that he might bring Egypt wholly under his power, he undertook a new expedition thither (וּבָא יָשׁוּב, he comes again). But this expedition, like the first, was not successful (כְ־כְ, as-so, cf. Jos 14:11; Eze 18:4). For the ships of Chittim come against him. כִּתִּים צִיִִּים, ships the Chittaei, for כִּתִּים מִיַד צִים, Num 24:24, whence the expression is derived כִּתִּים is Cyprus with its chief city Κίττιον (now Chieti or Chitti); see under Gen 10:4. Ships coming from Cyprus are ships which come from the west, from the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean. In 1 Macc. 1:1 and 8:5 כִּתִּים is interpreted of Macedonia, according to which Bertholdt and Dereser think of the Macedonian fleet with which the Roman embassy sailed to Alexandria. This much is historically verified, that the Roman embassy, led by Popillius, appeared with a fleet in Alexandria, and imperiously commanded Antiochus to desist from his undertaking against Egypt and to return to his own land (Liv. xlv. 10-12). The lxx have therefore translated these words by: καὶ ἥξουσι ̔Ρηωμαῖοι καὶ ἐχώσουσιν αὐτὸν καὶ ἐμβριμήσονται αὐτῷ, and correctly, so far as the prophecy has received the first historical accomplishment in that factum. וְנִכְאָה, he shall lose courage, is rightly explained by Jerome: non quod interierit, sed quod omnem arrogantiae perdiderit magnitudinem.
(Note: The historical facts have been briefly and conclusively brought together by Hitzig thus: “On the complaint of the Alexandrians the Roman senate sent an embassage, at the head of which was C. Popillius Laenas (Polyb. xxix. 1; Liv. xliv. 19). After being detained at Delos (Liv. xliv. 29), they set sail to Egypt after the battle at Pydna (Liv. xlv. 10). Here he met Antiochus four Roman miles from Alexandria, and presented to him the message of the senate. When Antiochus explained that he wished to lay the matter before his counsellors, Popillius described with the staff he carried on his hand a circle round the king, and commanded him to give his answer before he left this circle. Antiochus, confounded by the circumstance, submitted and withdrew from Egypt (Liv. xlv. 12; Polyb. xxix. 11; Appian, Syr. c. 66; Justin. xxxiv. 3).”)
וְזָעַם וְשָׁב, not: he was again enraged, for nothing is said of a previous זָעַם. וְשָׁב, and he turned round (back) from his expedition against Egypt. Since he was not able to accomplish anything against the נֶגֶב (the south), he turns his indignation against Judah to destroy the covenant people (cf. Dan 11:28). The וְשָׁב in Dan 11:30 resumes the וְשָׁב in Dan 11:30, so as further to express how he gave vent to his anger. Hitzig's interpretation of the first וְשָׁב of the return to Palestine, of the second, of the return from Palestine to Antiochus, is not justified. וְיָבֵן, he shall observe, direct his attention to the Jews who forsook the holy covenant, i.e., the apostate Jews, that he might by their help execute his plans against the Mosaic religion - partim ornando illos honoribus, partim illorum studiis ad patriam religionem obliterandam comparatis obsecundando, as C. B. Michaelis excellently remarks; cf. 1 Macc. 1:11-16 with 2:18.