Daniel 11:29 Commentary and Bible Study

‘At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.’ At the time appointed by God, not by Antiochus, he shall return. All the evil schemes of men are under the control of the Lord, and fulfil his purposes. Evil men think that they act by their own impulses, but they are steered by God’s invisible hand to act when he intends that they should act, though they alone take responsibility for their evil actions. Antiochus again came towards the south. This was his third campaign into Egypt in 168 BC, the second in 169 BC not being mentioned by Daniel. The reason why he returned to Egypt at this time, Barnes tells us, is that Ptolemy VI Philometer had come to an agreement with his brother, Ptolemy VII Euergetes (known as Physcon), and put him on the throne of Alexandria. Antiochus therefore came down and besieged Alexandria. However, this campaign was not successful ‘as the former, or as the latter’ – the first and the second – because of what happened next.‘For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.’ Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VII who reigned together had sent word to the Romans requesting help. The term Chittim applies strictly to Cyprus, but more broadly to all the Mediterranean west of Palestine. The Septuagint translates this ‘And the Romans will come’. Rome sent the stern Caius Popilius Laenas (Livy) to lift the siege and eject Antiochus from Egypt. Antiochus had known Popilius during his time in Rome, and the two had been friends, and he tried to behave mildly, but now Popilius kept his distance and acted purely according to instructions he had received from the Senate. He compelled Antiochus to withdraw from Egypt immediately, drawing a circle around him on the ground and saying he must not step out of it till he had decided. Antiochus complied but ‘groaning in spirit’ (Polibius), and it seems that his residual anger was directed against Palestine as a result – though Scripture informs us he was also motivated by a hatred of God and his people. He returned to Syria, but sent out a destructive force with orders ‘to slay the men and sell the women and children’ (Gill). Helping him with his purpose were a considerable number in Palestine who were prepared to forsake the covenant for their own protection (Jahn). Antiochus found leading Jews who were not faithful to their worship and to the ways of God, and he made compacts with them to be his representatives when he fully took over. All this is the punishment of God upon the Jews. So many times warned, they had had a fairly easy period. But now God takes away his hand of protection, and the Syrian king is going to attack them vindictively.‘And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.’ We read about that in the First Book of Maccabees, not an inspired book, but a contemporary book which tracks the heroism of various members of a prominent Jewish family that took a stand against all this. Arms or military forces will stand, that is they will be deliberately sent by Antiochus, on his part. They will pollute the ‘sanctuary of strength’ – this is two words: the sanctuary, the refuge or the fortress, two different aspects of the temple in Jerusalem – ‘and shall take away the daily sacrifice’ – the Hebrew is ‘the continual’ – and put in its place ‘the abomination that maketh desolate.’ The phrase could be translated as in the KJV, or it could be ‘the abomination that astonishes’, or, ‘the abomination that appals’. The same word in Hebrew has these two root meanings and they may well be combined together here (Leupold). ‘And shall take away the daily sacrifice’ – this was fulfilled when Antiochus sent Apollonius with twenty-two thousand men to Jerusalem, apparently as an act of revenge, to stop the offering up of sacrifices there (in June 167 BC (Jahn)), including the regular morning and evening sacrifice (1 Maccabees 1:29, 37-64). All this, according to Maccabees, went hand in hand with Antiochus imposing his own idolatrous religion on all territory under his dominion on pain of death, forbidding the Jews to circumcise their sons and destroying any copies of the Old Testament that were found. ‘And they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate’ – this refers to what Antiochus commanded to be placed in the temple. 1 Maccabees 1:54 says, ‘Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Juda on every side.’ Jahn in his ‘History of the Hebrew Commonwealth’ says, ‘He dedicated the temple to Jupiter Olympius, and on the altar of Jehovah he placed a smaller altar to be used in sacrificing to the heathen god. This new altar, built by order of the desolator Antiochus, is what Daniel alludes to when he speaks of the abomination that maketh desolate.’ Our Lord uses the same phrase when he says, ‘When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) ¹⁶ Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains’ (Matthew 24:15-16). This refers to the separate, though analogous, pollution of the temple by the Romans in AD 70.‘And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.’ Among the Jews many were willing to go along with these policies, too afraid to resist them. These are described as doing wickedly against the covenant. Antiochus did not just use force and coercion; he also used flattery, and by this he corrupted those who might have remained faithful to God. Examples of these were Jason and Menelaus who were both made high priest by Antiochus, and bid for the honour, Menelaus outbidding Jason. But others remained faithful, and the uninspired books of Maccabees tell the story of the resistance led by the family of the Jewish priest Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias.