Daniel 11:17

And he shall set his facei.e. purpose, plan (2 Kings 12:17; Jeremiah 42:15; Jeremiah 42:17; Jeremiah 44:12) to come with the strength, &c. to advance with all his force against Egypt. Livy (xxxiii. 19) describes how, in the spring of 197, omnibus regni viribus connixus, quum ingentes copias terrestres maritimasque comparasset, Antiochus himself set out with a fleet for the purpose of attacking all the cities on the coast of Cilicia, Lycia, and Caria, which were subject to Ptolemy. He did not actually invade Egypt, nor does the present verse say that he would do so.

and upright ones with him; thus shall he do the words yield no sense: read, with very slight changes, but shall make an agreement (see Daniel 11:6) with him: so LXX. Theod. Vulg. (cf. R.V. marg.). He did not carry out his intention, but found it convenient to come to terms with Ptolemy (φιλίαν καὶ σπονδὰς πρὸς τὸν Πτολεμαῖον ἐποιήσατο, Jos. Ant.xii. iv. 1). Antiochus had his eye on Asia Minor, and even on Europe: but being opposed by the Romans, he was glad to be on good terms with Egypt; he accordingly betrothed his daughter Cleopatra to Ptolemy Epiphanes, promising that she should receive as her dowry what was afterwards understood by the Egyptians to be the provinces of Cœle-Syria, Phœnicia, and Palestine, though this was denied before the Roman legates by Antiochus Epiphanes (Polyb. xxviii. 17, who appears to think that Antiochus Epiphanes was right) [366]. The marriage actually took place in the winter of 194 3, Antiochus taking his daughter to Raphia for the purpose (Livy xxxv. 13).

[366] The dowry seems in fact to have been not the provinces themselves, but their revenues(Wilcken [see p. 178 n.; Mahaffy, p. 306).

Cleopatra's betrothal is alluded to in Polyb. xviii. 51 end(whence Livy xxxiii. 40): in reply to the Roman legates who were sent to him in 196 at Lysimacheia (in Thrace) to demand (among other things) that he should restore the cities taken from Ptolemy, Antiochus replied that he was on friendly terms with Ptolemy, -et id agere se, ut brevi etiam affinitas jungatur."

and he shall give him the daughter of women his daughter Cleopatra.

corrupting her a very improbable rendering: Cleopatra was not (as was the case with many of the queens of the Ptolemies) her husband's sister; and (Mahaffy, p. 330) she "bears an excellent character in Egyptian history." Keil renders to destroy her; but Cleopatra, so far as we know, lived happily in Egypt, and died a natural death. The only reasonable rendering is to destroy it, the pronoun being referred ad sensumto Egypt. Antiochus was not really actuated by friendliness to Egypt; his true motives, no doubt, being (Hitz.) -to protect himself against Roman interference, to gain a footing in Egypt, and, if the opportunity should offer, to secure the country for himself." In 196, upon a false report of the death of Ptolemy reaching Lysimacheia (below, note), he actually started for the purpose of seizing Egypt (Livy xxxiii. 41).

but it shall not stand, neither be for him (emph.)] his plan will not succeed (cf. for the expression, Isaiah 7:7; Isaiah 14:24), nor turn out to his advantage, but (as is implied by the position of the pron., -and not for him shall it be") to that of another. Jerome writes, -Neque enim obtinere potuit Aegyptum: quia Ptolemaeus Epiphanes et duces eius, sentientes dolum, cautius se egerunt, et Cleopatra magis viri partes quam parentis fovit." In point of fact, Ptolemy retained the friendship of the Romans, while Antiochus, to his cost (see on Daniel 11:18), lost it.