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to stand up,' (here is the first grand transition in the prophecy, and one to be well marked as a precedent for comparison, in regard of what is unexpressed in it as well as of what is expressed, and in regard of the passage per saltum, as well to a later age as to another country,) which king was evidently the famous Greek ruler Alexander the Great: no other king having risen up in the 150 years between him and Xerxes, of whom it could be predicated that "he ruled with a great dominion, and did according to his will;" besides that what is said of the quadri-partition of his kingdom after his death" to others, and not to his own posterity," agrees most exactly, and so as it can be shown to do in the case of no other conqueror of antiquity, both with what is historically recorded respecting the division of Alexander's kingdom, and also with what was clearly foreshown about it in another and earlier of Daniel's prophecies." -It is the subsequent history of two distinctively, out of these four divisions of the Greek conqueror's empire, that the revealing angel proceeded to sketch; viz. of what he called "the King of the South," and "the King of the North." Now, from this simple designation alone, we might à priori pretty confidently have conjectured that the Egypto-Macedonian and SyroMacedonian dynasties were intended, of the Ptolemies

1 3. "And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. 4. And when he shall stand up† his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided towards the four winds of heaven: and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those."

2 Dan. viii. 8. See Vol. iii. p. 377.

T. The same Hebrew verb occurs in the verses 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, (twice), 17, 20, 21, 25, 31; also xii. 1, 13. In verse 8 it is rendered continue, in verse 15 withstand; in the other cases stand up, as here, or simply stand. Gesenius says, it is a word used particularly of a new prince; instancing Dan. viii. 23, as well as xi, 2, 3, 20.-Besides which cases it occurs in verses 11, 13, 14 in the Hiphil form; in verse 14 in the sense of to make to stand, or to establish; in verses 11, 13 in that of to stir up, to excite.

+ Or, when he shall have stood up.

exclusively, or to the exclusion of the word "those" meaning his (literally the latter,) being a noun of number,

posterity; the Hebrew

and used as a concrete.

and the Seleucida; the seats of government of these princes being respectively South and North of Judea. But in effect conjecture is not needed on the point; the country of the King of the South being expressly in an early passage of the prophecy called Egypt.1 And the considerate reader can scarce fail of seeing good reason for their selection, as special subjects of prophetic description to Daniel: not merely from the circumstance of their continuing longer, and making a much greater figure in history, than the other two post-Alexandrine Macedonian kingdoms; but much more on account of the Holy Land of Judea being involved more or less in their quarrels and wars; and the Jewish government being a dependancy for the most part of one or other of them, until its occupation and subjugation by the Romans.

2

And in regard to the earlier part of the prophecy concerning them,-i. e. from verse 6 to verse 31, where the question arises whether there may not then be made a transition to the Roman subjugation of Judea,—there has been exhibited, I think, such satisfactory evidence of a continuous parallelism between the predictive description of the two kings here given, and the international history of the Ptolemies and Seleucidæ, as to leave no reasonable doubt as to the meaning so far of the prophecy; and thus to offer us the immense advantage of a sufficiently clear introduction at the outset, to that which is more obscure.3

1 So verse 8; "He" (viz. the King of the South) "shall carry their gods into Egypt;" compared with the notice of the same event in the verse following, "The King of the South shall come into his own kingdom, and return to his own land."

2 The Thraco-Macedonian kingdom of Lysimachus was early overthrown by the first Seleucus, B.C. 281, about twenty years after the battle of Ipsus: and again the Græco-Macedonian kingdom of Cassander was finally overthrown by the Romans, as the result of the battle of Pydna, B.C. 168: whereas Syria was not made a Roman province till B.C. 65, and Egypt not till B.C. 30.

3 The following comparative tabular view may be useful, of the dates of the successive kings of the Ptolemaic and Seleucidean dynasties through the century and a half comprehended (as I suppose) in this prophetic sketch. I premise that the date of Alexander the Great's death is B. C. 323; of that of his brother Philip Aridæus, 316; of that of his son Alexander Ægus, by Roxana, 309; a short time after which (the date is generally given 306) the chief Macedonian governors and princes assumed the royal title:-Ptolemy, however, before the rest.

1. Whereas the King of the South was to be strong,' and the King of the North, (another of the great Greek King's princes or governors,) though later apparently in assuming the royal title, to become stronger than the

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After this fourteen more Syrian kings reigned, in reigns of short and uncertain power, till Syria was occupied and formed into a Roman province under Pompey; (at which time the Era of the Seleucidæ properly ends!)* and six more Egyptian princes, to the death of Ptolemy Auletes; who dying, B.C. 51, left his kingdom and children to Roman guardianship; one of these children being the Cleopatra so famous in the histories of Cæsar and Antony.

15. "And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes: + and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion: his dominion shall be a great dominion. 6. And in the end of years§ they shall join themselves toge

* It was, however, sometimes used many centuries later by both Greeks and Syrians; e.g. by the Nestorians as late as A.D. 781. See my Vol. i. p. 35. + The Septuagint translates, "And one of his princes shall be strong above him," without the connecting 1, or and. And Bishop Newton thinks that there is manifestly either this redundance, by error of transcription, in the Hebrew text, or an omission of "the king of the north" after the and. But this seems to me not necessary. It only needs that we understand "shall be strong," from the clause preceding, after "one of the princes." Which last phrase means evidently one of Alexander's generals; (so Wintle, and Boothroyd from Houbigant;) and is an early example of Daniel's use of pronouns, in reference not to the next immediately preceding noun, but the one before. It is to be remembered that Ptolemy became King of the South ere Seleucus assumed the royal title; and consequently while he was yet professedly only a governor; governor of Babylon. Mark the he and him, in the sense of, the latter above the former."

"

§ Sept. μета та ETN Auts reading ";—i. e. after Seleucus' death.

King of the South, then contentions (as it is implied) to arise and continue between them, until composed by the expedient of a family alliance through the marriage of a daughter of the King of the South to the King of the North,-so Ptolemy the First became strong as King of Egypt, and Seleucus, the Macedonian governor of Babylon, on subsequently assuming the title of King, much greater and stronger: and, a quarrel having soon arisen between the immediate successors of these two kings, war continued until composed by the second Ptolemy giving his daughter Berenice in marriage to the third of the Seleucidean dynasty.-2. Whereas this scheme of family alliance was prophesied of as to fail,2 and both the South King's married daughter, and the ther: * for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement." +

1 So Arrian apud Bishop Newton. In fact Seleucus' empire extended from the Indus to the Ægean.-At this time lived Megasthenes and Berosus.

2 6. 66

But she shall not retain the power of the arm,§ neither shall he stand,

The Hebrew word (the Hithpael form of to join) is used also 2 Chron. xx. 35, 37; "Jehoshaphat did join himself with Ahaziah :" i. e. in the partnership and alliance of a joint undertaking.

T

+ Hebr. iy. Literally, "To do or make rectitudes." Lee translates it, to make things straight; Gesenius, to make peace. The latter compares verse 17, where the root occurs, and where the Septuagint render it (more correctly probably than our English translation) ευθεια παντα μετ' αυτου ποιήσει ; very much as Prof. Lee here. The Greek rendering here is, rov moinσai ovvdNKAS μer' avrov.-Let me add the passage 2 Kings x. 15, "Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart," where the same Hebrew word occurs, in proof that it is used to express friendliness, as well as moral rectitude. So Aben Ezra explains the present passage," to make peace between them;" as also the Rabbi Saadiah. The same Hebrew word occurs in Dan. x. 8; "I retained no strength." §, paxiv, is a word frequent in the Old Testament, both in the singular and plural, to signify strength, power, whether of an individual or host. So, Job xxii. 8, "a man of arm orstrength;" and Gen. xlix. 24, "The arms (i.e. power) of his hands were made strong by the God of Jacob." -In Isa. li. 9 and Ixii. 8, the double phrase, "strength of the arm," (xus Bpaxiovos, Sept.) is used conjointly, as here.-In subsequent verses of this chapter it is used with verbs thus; (I quote from the Septuagint to avoid the ambiguity of the word arm in English :-) xi. 15 ; Και δι βραχιονες του βασιλέως του νοτου ου ςησονται xi. 22, βραχίονες του κατακλύζοντος κατακλυσθήσονται. xi. 31, και βραχιονες και σπερματα εξ αυτού αναςήσονται.— Compare Ezek. xxx. 25 ; Και ενισχυσω τους βραχίονας βασιλεως Βαβυλωνος, δι δε βραχίονες Φαραω TEσOVVTAL.-Wintle makes this word the nominative; "The arm shall not retain strength."

King her husband, and her son too by the marriage,' and her attendants to fall,—so both Berenice, and her husband Antiochus, and her son too by him, and her attendants, were actually murdered by the arts of Antiochus' original but repudiated wife, Laodice.2-3. Whereas "out of a branch of her roots,' 293 one was to stand up to avenge

nor his arm: * but she shall be given up; and they that brought her, and he that begat her,† and he that strengthened her in these times.§

2 See Univ. Hist. ix. 197.

] Taking the Septuagint reading, seed. 37. "But out of a branch of her roots || shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with** an army, and shall enter into the fortress++ of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail; 8. and shall also carry captive into Egypt their gods, with their princes,‡‡ and with their precious

• The Septuagint translates, Kai 8 snoetai to σтEPμа avт8; reading with a different punctuation from that of our translators, seed, or children: which I conceive to be the right reading; since otherwise in the phrase "Neither shall he stand, nor his arm," or power, the last clause is tautologous. So Wintle. Boothroyd too translates, "Neither shall she stand, nor her seed:" where mark the gender; she.

+ Bishop Newton and Wintle translate, "he whom she brought forth," follow

: וְהַיֹּלְדָה,instead of the received reading וְהַיַּלְדָּהּ ing the marginal reading

T

and so Boothroyd, "Her son." The Sept. omits the Mappik; translating veavis, the young woman: Aben Ezra translates, her mother; as without points.

Literally, the times.

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§ Aben Ezra explains this to mean astrologers; an explanation curious and worth observing. In Esther i. 13 and 1 Chron. xii. 32, they who understand times, y, is a periphrasis for astrologers; "times" meaning in some places men's destinies. So Psalm xxxi. 15, My times are in thy hand;" also 1 Chron. xxix. 30, Job xxiv. 1.—Else he that strengthened her must be taken (one for many) to mean the party that supported Berenice against Laodice, at the time of her being in Syria, including especially her husband. So Wintle. || Or, "from the stem of her roots; a remarkable and distinctive phrase. Compare Isa. xi. 1; "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." Her roots mean her parentage or ancestry; and a person is indicated who should be of a common stock with her; i. e. a brother, if taken most strictly. So Saadiah makes the person here meant to be the brother of the king's daughter before spoken of.

without the preposition, for iyin his place, or stead. So Gesenius. With the phrase is used in this sense in verses 20, 21, 38. The word, a place, is used Gen. xl. 13, "In three days Pharaoh shall restore thee to thy place;" and again Gen. xli. 13, "to my office."

**

usually to. So the Sept. ήξει προς την δυναμιν. If the sense of with (which however Wintle adopts) be not warranted, then the meaning may either be, "shall come to the power," i. e. to the power of the kingdom; for means power, as well as a host or army: or else, "shall come to the fortification, or fortified town, (so as in Isa. xxvi. 1, &c.) of the Northern king.

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++ i: a word which occurs also in verse 10, stirred up to his fortress; and is the same that by its use in verse 38 in the plural has given rise to Mede's famous criticism on the Mahuzzim.

The Septuagint has it, μera тWV XWVEUTWV AvTwv, with their molten images :

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