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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Daniel 11:3 - 11:3
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But only brief notices, characterizing its nature, were given regarding the Macedonian kingdom, which agree with the prophecies Dan 7:6 and Dan 8:5-8, Dan 8:21-22, without adding new elements. The founder of the kingdom is called גִּבֹּור מֶלֶךְ, “brave king,” “hero-king,” and his kingdom “a great dominion.” Of his government it is said כִּרְצוֹנוֹ עָשָׂה, he does, rules, according to his will (cf. Dan 8:4), so that his power might be characterized as irresistible and boundless self-will. Similarly Curtius writes of him (x. 5. 35): Fatendum est, cum plurimum virtuti debuerit, plus debuisse fortunae, quam solus omnium mortalium in potestate habuit. Hujus siquidem beneficio agere videbatur gentibus quidquid placebat. By the כְ in כְּעָמְדוֹ the coming of the king and the destruction of his kingdom are stated as synchronous, so as to express with great force the shortness of its duration. עָמְדוֹ is not to be otherwise interpreted than עָמַד in Dan 11:3, and is thus not to be translated: “when he thus stands up,” sc. in the regal power described in Dan 11:3 (Kran.), or: “on the pinnacle of his might” (Häv.), but: “when (or as) he has made his appearance, his kingdom shall be broken.” In the words, also, there does not lie the idea “that he himself in his life-time is deprived of this throne and his kingdom by a violent catastrophe” (Kran.); for the destruction of the kingdom does not necessarily include in it the putting to death of the ruler. The thought is only this: “when he has appeared and founded a great dominion, his kingdom shall be immediately broken.” תִּשָּׁבֵר (shall be broken) is chosen with reference to Dan 8:8, “toward the four winds of heaven.” We may neither supply תֵחָץ (shall be divided) to לְאַחֲרִיתוֹ וְלֹא (and not to his posterity), nor is this latter expression “connected with תֵחָץ in pregnant construction;” for תֵחָץ, from חָצָה, signifies to divide, from which we are not to assume the idea of to allot, assign. We have simply to supply הִיא in the sense of the verb. subst., shall be, as well here as in the following clause, כְמָשְׁלוֹ וְלֹא. The אַחֲרִית e signifies here as little as in Amo 4:2; Amo 9:1, posterity = זֶרַע, but remnant, that which is left behind, the survivors of the king, by which we are to understand not merely his sons, but all the members of his family. כְמָשְׁלוֹ וְלֹא, “and it shall not be according to the dominion which he ruled.” This thought, corresponding to בְכֹחוֹ וְלֹא in Dan 8:22, is the natural conclusion from the idea of division to all the four winds, which the falling asunder into several or many small kingdoms involves. הִנָּתֵשׁ, “shall be plucked up” (of plants from the earth), denotes the rooting up of that which is table, the destroying and dissolving of the kingdom into portions. In this division it shall pass to others מִלְּבַד־אֵלֶּה, “with the exclusion of those” (the אַחֲרִית), the surviving members of the family of Alexander. To וְֵלַאֲחֵרִים (and for others) supply תִּהְיֶה (shall be).
In Dan 11:4, accordingly, the prophetic thought is expressed, that the Javanic kingdom, as soon as the brave king has founded a great dominion, shall be broken to pieces and divided toward the four winds of heaven, so that its separate parts, without reaching to the might of the broken kingdom, shall be given not to the survivors of the family of the founder, but to strangers. This was historically fulfilled in the fact, that after the sudden death of Alexander his son Hercules was not recognised by his generals as successor on the throne, but was afterwards murdered by Polysperchon; his son also born by Roxana, along with his guardian Philip Arideus, met the same fate; but the generals, after they had at first divided the kingdom into more than thirty parts, soon began to war with each other, the result of which was, that at last four larger kingdoms were firmly established. Cf. Diod. Sic. xx. 28, xix. 105; Pausan. ix. 7; Justini hist. xv. 2, and Appiani Syr. c. 51.