Daniel 11:1-4

CHAPTER ELEVEN

V. THE CONTEMPTIBLE ONE Daniel 11:1-45

a. PROGENITORS
(1) PERSIA AND GREECE

TEXT: Daniel 11:1-4

1

And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to conform and strengthen him.

2

And now I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all; and when he is waxed strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.

3

And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

4

And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion wherewith he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides these.

QUERIES

a.

Who are the three kings of Persia yet to stand?

b.

Who is the mighty king to rule with great dominion?

c.

What are the four divisions of his kingdom?

PARAPHRASE

And I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to be a supporter and a stronghold unto Michael. And now I will show you the truth as to what the future holds for God's people. Three more Persian kings will reign after the present one. These three will be succeeded by a fourth, far richer than the others. Using his wealth for political advantage, he will plan total war against Greece. Then a mighty king will rise in Greece, a king who will rule a vast kingdom and accomplish everything he sets out to do. But at the zenith of his power, his kingdom will fall to pieces and be divided into four kingdoms, which will be much weaker than his former powerful one. Not one of these four kingdoms will be ruled over by this great king's children. His empire will be torn apart and given to those not of his family.

COMMENT

Daniel 11:1 AND AS FOR ME. This verse really belongs to chapter 10 and should be the closing sentence of Daniel 10:20. The angelic speaker is relating how he had previously helped Michael, the archangel, as Michael had to overcome great obstacles at the Persian court in the first year of Gubaru (Darius). See our comments on 10:30 and Daniel 10:20.

Daniel 11:2. YET THREE KINGS IN PERSIA; AND THE FOURTH. We take this to mean there would be three kings of Persia to follow Cyrus. And after the three following Cyrus there would be a fourth, richer by far than any of the others. Edward J. Young tabulates the prophecy thus:

1.

Cyrus

2.

1

YET

Cambyses

3.

2

TO

Smerdis

4.

3

STAND

Darius Hystaspis

5.

The 4th

Xerxes

For an excellently detailed account of the history of these Persian monarchs, see Between The Testaments, by Charles F. Pfeiffer, pub. by Baker, pages 11-43. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, while returning home from a protracted campaign in Egypt and Ethiopia, died of a wound accidently self-inflicted when mounting his horse. The Persian record of his death suggests suicide. We know that he suffered from epileptic fits. Cyrus had at least two sons, Cambyses and his brother, Bardiya. Cambyses is reported to have murdered Bardiya. Before his death, a revolt in the homeland had been initiated by one Gaumata. The news of this revolt was what precipitated Cambyses-' hasty return from Egypt. Gaumata claimed to be Bardiya, the brother of Cambyses, and heir to the throne. After Cambyses died, the army remained loyal to the government which he represented. Two months later the pretender (known as Pseudo-Smerdis) Gaumata was taken prisoner and executed.

Legend states that, after the death of Cambyses, seven Persian nobles, under the leadership of Darius, conspired against the false Bardiya. They agreed to choose as king the one whose horse neighed first after sunrise. Through the ruse of his groom, the throne was won for Darius. Darius claimed to be the legitimate successor of Cambyses. In the eyes of many of his contemporaries he was a usurper. The Behistun inscription shows the pains which Darius Hystaspis took to prove that he was the scion of the house of Achemenes.

Darius Hystaspis is the emperor who protected the Jews from their Samaritan enemies, who were trying to thwart the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and the temple. Darius found in the royal archives at Ecbatana the decree of Cyrus that the Jews be permitted to re-occupy and rebuild their commonwealth. Darius determined that the decree must be honored. His royal order is found in Ezra 6:7-8.

Darius attempted to conquer the Scythians (originating in the vast plains of western Russia and settling north of the Black Sea, and west and south as far as the Danube) but they only retreated. Their scorched earth policy compelled Darius to give up pursuing them. He conquered Asia Minor and its coastal cities of commerce. He conquered large portions of India and Egypt and turned his attention to Greece. When Darius landed at Marathon, he was met by the Athenian army. Before reinforcements could arrive from Sparta, the Athenians met the Persians and won a resounding victory. Seven Persian ships were captured by the Greeks, and the remainder withdrew. Troubles in Egypt demanded the attention of Darius, and he gave up his plans for resuming his operations against Greece.
Shortly after Marathon, Egypt was in open revolt against Darius. The heavily garrisoned troops living off the land, and the heavy tribute and taxes demanded by Darius, proved too much for the Egyptians. The Greeks had probably encouraged revolting in Egypt and other trouble spots in the Persian Empire.
Before the Egyptian revolt was ended, Darius had died. As an organizer of the civil government, he has seldom been equaled. The royal palace which he built at Persepolis was one of the great structures of antiquity. Darius could be cruel. He ruled as an absolute monarch. Organizationally, the Persian Empire reached its peak of efficiency under Darius, but decay had already begun to set in.

Xerxes was the son of Darius by Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus. For twelve years he served under his father as viceroy of Babylon before succeeding to the throne at the death of Darius. The Persian form of the name Xerxes is Khshayarsha, which, in Hebrew, is rendered Ahasuerus (cf. Ezra 4:6 and the Book of Esther). Under Xerxes the Persians were soundly defeated by the Greeks at Salamis, 480 B.C. He lived 14 years after the loss of Greece, but little is known about him in that time. He was murdered by a usurper, Artabanus, who is said to have reigned seven months before being killed by Artaxerxes, the third son and legitimate heir of Xerxes. Xerxes was about 55 years old when he was assassinated. He was reported to be very rich and indulgent and to act habitually like a spoilt child. The Esther episode agrees well with this description. He was given to ostentation and loved display, and appears to have been susceptible to the flattery and intrigue of fawning courtiers.

From this time on the strength of the Persian empire began to wane and it was finally overwhelmed by Alexander the Great (whose history we have recorded in connection with Chapter s 7 and 8.

Daniel 11:3-4 AND A MIGHTY KING SHALL STAND UP. HIS KINGDOM SHALL BE BROKEN, AND SHALL BE DIVIDED TOWARD THE FOUR WINDS OF HEAVEN, BUT NOT TO HIS POSTERITY. When Alexander died in 323 B.C., he left no heir. A son was posthumously born to Roxana, Alexander's Bactrian wife, but the diadochoi, or successors of Alexander, seized power before he could reach maturity. One of the diadochoi, Cassander, murdered Roxana and her son.

Alexander had had many able generals, but there was not one that arose as his logical successor. By 315 B.C., after seven years of struggle, four outstanding leaders appeared: Antigonus who occupied the country from the Mediterranean to central Asia; Cassander, who ruled Macedonia; Ptolemy Lagi who ruled Egypt and Southern Syria; and Lysimachus, ruler of Thrace. Ptolemy's foremost general was Seleucus who occupied an important role in the subsequent history of Palestine.
In 315 B.C., Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus formed an alliance to check Antigonus, who aspired in his own right to be a second Alexander. After much fighting within the alliance it came to a head in 301 B.C. when Lysimachus, Seleucus (now almost independent of Ptolemy) and Cassander with their combined forces met and overcome the forces of the empire-conscious Antigonus at Ipsus, in Phrygia. Antigonus died on the battlefield, and his Asiatic empire came to an end. Ptolemy had remained on the sidelines during the fighting at Ipsus. It had been agreed that Syria and Palestine would be assigned to Ptolemy in the event of victory over Antigonus. Since Ptolemy had not taken an active part in the fighting the other three allies decided that the territories of Syria and Palestine should be assigned to Seleucus.

It is nothing short of supernatural and miraculous to observe how the actual history of this period and this part of the world and these people confirms in minute detail the prophecies here made by Daniel some 300 years before it transpired! The minuteness and detail of this eleventh chapter, and its actual fulfillment to the letter is the one factor motivating the destructive critics of the Bible to place the Book of Daniel as late as the 2nd century B.C. For if the Book of Daniel was written near 600-500 B.C. his prediction of these details of history which can only have happened to the Ptolemies and Seleucids is proof-positive of supernatural revelation! The history unfolds in even more detail in the succeeding verses of this eleventh chapter.

QUIZ

1.

Where does Daniel 11:1 belong in the text?

2.

Who is the angelic being strengthening?

3.

Name the four kings to succeed Cyrus in Persia and tell of their exploits.

4.

Who is the mighty king?

5.

Why was his kingdom not given to his posterity?

6.

Who did obtain rule of his kingdom after his death and how?