Page 325 - Daniel

appearing on the stage of history, strutting out his part and making
way for his successor. 8

With the passing of Babylon, the natural question arose concerning the
future of the Medo-Persian Empire. So the angel announced, “Now I will
show you the truth,” that is, the truth of what would come to pass in the
future (cf. “the book of truth,” 10:21). Daniel was informed that there

would be three kings in Persia, followed by a fourth and greater king
who would use his riches and strength to “stir up all against the
kingdom of Greece.” The identity of these four kings has been disputed,
and Montgomery uses the many different explanations as an evidence of
the incredibility of this prophecy. 9

The most natural explanation, however, is that the “three more kings”
refer to the next three Persian rulers who followed Cyrus to the throne
(cf. 10:1). The three kings would then be Cambyses (529–522 B.C., not

mentioned in the Old Testament); Pseudo-Smerdis (522–521 B.C.); and
Darius I Hystaspes (521–486 B.C., Ezra 5–6). These three kings would be

followed by “a fourth … far richer than all of them,” which must refer to
Xerxes I (486–465 B.C., Ezra 4:6). This identification has the advantage of
taking the Persian kings in order, climaxing with Xerxes I who led the
great expedition against Greece.

Xerxes I used his great riches and a period of some four years to
gather a great army amounting to hundreds of thousands, one of the
largest armies in the ancient world. The expedition that he launched in

480 B.C. against Greece was disastrous, however, and Xerxes never
recovered. The Ahasuerus of Esther 1 may be identified with Xerxes I, 10
and the ill-fated expedition against Greece may have occurred between
11
chapters 1 and 2 of Esther. Details on the Persian Empire are not given
here because these are covered adequately in the books of Ezra,
Nehemiah, and Esther, insofar as they related to the people of Israel and

the plan of God, and these records are supplemented by the prophetic
books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Having mentioned “Greece,”
Daniel’s revelation turned immediately to details of this third empire not
given elsewhere in the Word of God.