Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)
Daniel 11:20-27
THIRD SECTION
Events under Seleucus Philopator down to the first attempts of Antiochus Epiphanes against Egypt (B.C. 170).
Daniel 11:20 -Seleucus Philopator (B.C. 187-176) had a character the reverse of his father's. He was no restless seeker for glory, but desired wealth and quietness. Among the Jews, however, he had a very evil reputation, for he sent an "exactor"-a mere tax-collector, Heliodorus-"to pass through the glory of the kingdom." He only reigned twelve years, and theft was "broken"- i.e., murdered by Heliodorus, neither in anger nor in battle, but by poison administered by this "tax-collector." The versions all vary, but I feel little doubt that Dr. Joel is right when he sees in the curious phrase " nogesh heder malkooth," "one that shall cause a raiser of taxes to pass over the kingdom"-of which neither Theodotion nor the Vulgate can make anything-a cryptographic allusion to the name "Heliodorus"; and possibly the predicted fate may (by a change of subject) also refer to the fact that Heliodorus was checked, not by force, but by the vision in the Temple. #/RAPC 2Ma 5:18; 2Ma 3:24-29 We find from #/RAPC Malachi 4:1 that Simeon, the governor of the Temple, charged Onias with a trick to terrify Heliodorus, This is a very probable view of what occurred.
Daniel 11:21 -Seleucus Philopator died B.C. 175 without an heir. This made room for a contemptible person, a reprobate, who had no real claim to royal dignity, being only a younger son of Antiochus the Great. He came by surprise, "in time of security." and obtained the kingdom by flatteries.
Daniel 11:22.-Yet "the overflowing wings of Egypt" (or "the arms of a flood") "were swept away before him and broken; yea, and even a covenanted or allied prince." Some explain this of his nephew Ptolemy Philometor, others of Onias III, "the prince of the covenant"- i.e., the princely high priest, whom Antiochus displaced in favour of his brother, the apostate Joshua, who Graecised his name into Jason, as his brother Onias did in calling himself Menelaus.
Daniel 11:23 -This mean king should prosper by deceit which he practised on all connected with him; and though at first he had but few adherents, he should creep into power.
Daniel 11:24 -"In time of security shall he come, even upon the fattest places of the province." By this may be meant his invasions of Galilee and Lower Egypt. Acting unlike any of his royal predecessors, he shall lavishly scatter his gains and his booty among needy followers, and shall plot to seize Pelusium, Naucratis, Alexandria, and other strongholds of Egypt for a time.
Daniel 11:25 -After this (B.C. 171) he shall, with a "great army," seriously undertake his first invasion of Egypt, and shall be met by his nephew Ptolemy Philometor with another immense army. In spite of this, the young Egyptian King shall fail through the treachery of his own courtiers. He shall be outwitted and treacherously undermined by his uncle Antiochus. Yes! even while his army is fighting, and many are being slain, the very men who "eat of his dainties," even his favourite and trusted courtiers, Eulaeus and Lenaeus, will be devising his ruin, and his army shall be swept away.
Daniel 11:26 (B.C. 174).-The Syrians and the Egyptian King, nephew and uncle, shall in nominal amity sit at one banquet, eating from one table; but all the while they will be distrustfully plotting against each other and "speaking lies" to each other. Antiochus will pretend to ally himself with the young Philometor against his brother Ptolemy Euergetes II-generally known by his derisive nickname as Ptolemy Physkon-whom after eleven months the Alexandrians had proclaimed king. But all these plots and counter-plots should be of none effect, for the end was not yet.