Daniel 11:24

In (time of) security (Daniel 11:21) and upon the fattest places(cf. Genesis 27:28, Heb.) of the province shall he come] The Heb. is unusually harsh; though the fact in both A.V. and R.V. is most successfully concealed. -In security" is probably accidentally out of place, and should follow -come" (in the Heb. ובמשמני מדינה בשלוה יבוא for בשלוה ובמשמני מדינה יבוא). Cf. Daniel 8:25 (also of Antiochus) -and in (time of) security he shall destroy many." Again, the allusion is uncertain: it may be to Antiochus" acquisition of power over Syria; it may be to his attacks upon Judah, or to his invasions of Egypt.

prey and spoil and substance he shall scatter unto them to his followers, or it may be to his people generally (for the vague use of the pron., cf. Daniel 11:7; Daniel 11:25). The allusion is, no doubt, to Antiochus" lavish prodigality, in which he differed from most of the previous Syrian kings (-his fathers," and -his fathers" fathers"), who were usually in lack of surplus money. Cf. 1Ma 3:30, -and he feared that he should not have enough as at other times for the charges and the gifts which he used to give aforetime with a liberal hand, and he abounded above the kings which were before him"; also his liberality at Naukratis (above, p. 180), and the anecdotes of his lavish gifts to boon-companions, and even to strangers, in Polyb. xxvi. 10. 9 10, and Athen. x. 52 (p. 438). He was also very munificent in gifts to cities and temples, and in public shows (Liv. xli. 20, who cites examples [379]). Naturally, the funds for such purposes were obtained largely from the -prey" and -spoil" of plundered provinces: cf. 1Ma 1:19, -and he took the spoils of Egypt," iii. 31; Polyb. xxxi. 4. 9 (the cost of the games given by him in rivalry with those of Aem. Paullus in 167, defrayed in part out of the plunder of Egypt).

[379] For instance, he promised and partly bore the cost of, a city-wall at Megalopolis in Arcadia: he contributed largely to the restoration of the temple of Zeus Olympios at Athens; he presented gold vessels to the Prytaneum at Cyzicus, and beautified Delos with altars and statues; and at home he not only made many improvements in his capital, but also, what in Syria was an innovation, gave frequent gladiatorial shows. The words -spectaculorum quoque omnis generis magnificentia superiores reges vicit" (cf. Polyb. xxvi. 10. 11) illustrate especially 1Ma 3:30, cited above.

against fortresses, also, he shall devise his devices frame warlike plans, whether successfully, as against Pelusium and the other places in Egypt which he secured (cf. 1Ma 1:19, of his first campaign in Egypt, -and they took the strong cities in the land of Egypt"), or unsuccessfully, as against Alexandria (see p. 180): perhaps, more particularly, the latter (-devise," as though ineffectually).

and that, until a time until the time fixed, in the counsels of God, as the limit of such enterprises: cf. Daniel 11:27; Daniel 11:35.