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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Daniel 11:39 - 11:39
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With the help of this god, who was unknown to his fathers, he will so proceed against the strong fortresses that he rewards with honour, might, and wealth those who acknowledge him. This is the meaning of the verse, which has been very differently rendered. The majority of modern interpreters separate the two parts of the verse from each other, for they refer the first hemistich to the preceding, and in the second they find a new thought expressed. Hävernick and v. Lengerke supply a demonstrative כֹּה, thus: - thus shall he do to the armed fortresses together with the strange gods, i.e., fill the fortified temples with treasures, and promote their worship. But the supplement כֹּה is here just as arbitrary as is the interpreting of the armed fortresses of temples. Hitzig misses the object to עָשָׂה, and seeks it by changing עִם into עַם: he prepares for the armed fortresses a people of a strange god; but apart from the fact that the change of the text is arbitrary, the use of the expression “people of a strange god” for colonists is most singular. Ewald translates the expression thus: “he proceeds with the strong fortresses as with the strange god,” and explains: “he loves the fortresses only just as a god;” but he has given no proof that לְ עָשָׂה means to love. The missing object to וְעָשָׂה follows in the second hemistich, just as in Deu 31:4; Jos 8:2; Isa 10:11. עָשָׂה means simply to do anything to one (Kran., Klief.). נֵכָר אֱלוֹהַּ עִם, with the help of the strange god (עִם of assistance, as in 1Sa 14:45), not: in the mind of the strange god (Kliefoth). מָעֻזִּים מִבְצְרֵי, fortified, i.e., strong fortresses, are not the fortified walls and houses, but the inhabitants of the fortified cities. With these he does according to his will with the help of his god, i.e., of war, namely in this, that he rewards with honour and power only those who acknowledge him. הִכִּיר אֲשֶׁר, who acknowledges, sc. him, the king who made war his god. Hitzig has incorrectly interpreted: whom he acknowledges. The Keri יַכִּיר for the Kethiv הִכִּיר is an unnecessary emendation here, as in Isa 28:15 with עָבַּר. The verb הִכִּיר is chosen to reflect upon the word נֵכָר. It means to recognise, properly to acknowledge him as what he is or wishes to be; cf. Deu 21:17. Such an one he shall increase with honour, confer upon him sovereignty over many, and divide the land. בִּמְחִיר is not for payment, for recompense, as the contrast to חִנָּם (gratuitously) (Kran.). That is not a suitable rendering here. The word rather means pro praemio, as a reward (Maur., Klief.), as a reward for the recognition accorded to him. The Vulgate renders it rightly according to the sense, gratuito. In this most modern interpreters find a reference to the circumstance that Antiochus occupied the Jewish fortresses with heathen garrisons, and rewarded his adherents with places of honour and with possessions of land (2 Macc. 4:10, 24; 5:15). But this is what all conquerors do, and it was not peculiar to Antiochus, so that it could be mentioned as characteristic of him. The words contain the altogether common thought that the king will bestow honour, power, and possessions on those who acknowledge him and conduct themselves according to his will, and they accord with the character of Antichrist in a yet higher degree than with that of Antiochus.