Verse 1. Presumably the one whom the angel stood up to confirm and strengthen was “the Prince of Greece”. We can imagine that this should be so, for when Alexander the Great assumed power he was quite a young man (only 33 when he died) and what he accomplished in his brief lifetime was prodigious.
In 11:2 the angel gives to Daniel such a detailed description of what was going to develop, that the critic says without hesitation that it was written after the events described and not before! We do not propose to go through this in detail, for it has been done many times, and for it would refer the reader to [John Thomas’] Elpis Israel p. 362 or Exposition of Daniel p. 46. But let us explain who are the kings of the North and South.
In the vision of the ram and the goat in chapter 8, the “notable horn” on the goat represented Alexander. This was broken, and four horns sprang up in its place. These four horns represented the four generals of Alexander, who divided the empire between them. Ptolemy seized Egypt and Seleucus obtained the northern portion embracing Syria and adjacent provinces. From that time Syria became “the king of the North” and Egypt became “the king of the South,” and the early part of the chapter describes the battles and intrigues of these two powers, the land of Palestine being the battleground between them.
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Author: James Carter
Keywords: kings of the North and South, king of the North, king of the South
Bible reference(s): Daniel 11
Source: The Believer, No. 21, 1974.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.