Daniel 11:7 Commentary and Bible Study

‘But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate.’ This is the brother of Berenice, from the same root as her, who will stand up, take his office in the place of her father who was now dead. The commentators agree on the following fulfilment of these verses as recorded in history. In 245 BC Ptolemy III invaded Syria to avenge (or prevent, but he was too late (Gill)) the death of his sister, Berenice, and her son. Seleucus II Callinicus, the son of Laodice, was not able to resist him, and Ptolemy prevailed, entering into the fortified cities of Syria – ‘the fortress of the king of the north’, and ‘extended his ravages to the Euphrates and Tigris’ (Barnes). He killed Laodice, the murderess of his sister (EJ Young). Egypt will conquer Syria, but they will not permanently occupy it. He doesn't seem to be interested in colonising or ruling it. They will just take plunder and go home again. ‘Had it not been for a sedition in his own kingdom [Egypt] … he had made himself master of the whole kingdom of Seleucus, as Justin [Justinus] says’ (Gill). Nevertheless, he returned with two thousand five hundred images, humiliating them since they trusted in their gods – ‘and shall carry captives into Egypt their gods’ – together with a vast amount of silver and gold – ‘with their precious vessels of silver and of gold’. He was rewarded for these triumphs by his people who gave him the name Euergetes, the benefactor. He outlived Seleucus II Callinicus by three or four years – ‘and he shall continue more years than the king of the north’. ‘So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land.’ Gill believes this describes the invasion of the northern kingdom by Ptolemy, and his premature return to Egypt because of the sedition that broke out there.‘But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress.’ This is the northern kingdom, returning the attack in 219 BC, after a period of recovery. Seleucus II Callinicus died in 225 BC, according to Justinus (who paraphrased the earlier history of Trogus), when he fell from his horse. The prophecy is strictly accurate in describing what follows, though without knowing its fulfilment, it is hard to understand. His two sons Seleucus III Ceraunus and Antiochus (later ‘the Great’) planned their attack – ‘his two sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces’ – but after three years on the throne Seleucus III died and his brother Antiochus III the Great continued with the planned attack – Daniel therefore switches to the singular: ‘and one shall certainly come.’ During this campaign he recaptured for Syria much of the territory previously taken from his father by Ptolemy III Euergetes – ‘one shall … overflow, and pass through.’ The ruler in the south was by this time Ptolemy IV Philopator. He also ‘took Gaza and other strongholds’ (Barnes), thought by some to be the fortress referred to here (Leupold).