Page 330 - Daniel

beyond the Euphrates and nearly all of Asia as well. And then, when
he heard that a rebellion was afoot in Egypt, he ravaged the kingdom
of Seleucus and carried off as booty forty thousand talents of silver,
and also precious vessels and images of the gods to the amount of two
and a half thousand. Among them were the same images which

Cambyses had brought to Persia at the time when he conquered Egypt.
The Egyptian people were indeed devoted to idolatry, for when he had
brought back their gods to them after so many years, they called him
Euergetes (Benefactor). And he himself retained possession of Syria,
but he handed over Cilicia to his friend, Antiochus, that he might

govern it, and the provinces beyond the Euphrates he handed over to
Xanthippus, another general. 19

The precise accuracy of the prophecy written by Daniel three hundred
years before it happened has occasioned the attack of the critics, but
actually its detailed fulfillment is a support for the accuracy of scriptural
prophecy as a whole.

Verse 9 seems to imply that the king of the south returned to his own
land. A better translation, however, would indicate that he, Seleucus
Callinicus, is the subject of the phrase “shall come into the realm of the
king of the south.” This could refer to the fact that several years after the
Egyptian invasion, Seleucus sought to mount a return attack on Egypt,

possibly about 240 B.C., but was soundly defeated and forced to “return
into his own land.” This was the beginning of the seesaw battle
20
between the two nations. The inclusion of this background material
leads up to the important point, the burden of the prophecy in verses
10–19, which is the ascendancy of Syria over Egypt and the return of the

Holy Land to Syrian control. This set the stage for the persecutions of
Israel under Antiochus Epiphanes, which is the major concern of verses
21–35 of this prophecy.

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN SELEUCUS AND ANTIOCHUS III THE
GREAT AGAINST PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR (11:10–19)

11:10–12 “His sons shall wage war and assemble a multitude of great
forces, which shall keep coming and overflow and pass through, and