Daniel 11:9-15

11:9 Then the king of the north ¹  will advance against the empire of the king of the south, but will withdraw to his own land. 11:10 His sons ²  will wage war, mustering a large army which will advance like an overflowing river and carrying the battle all the way to the enemy’s ³  fortress. ⁴ 

11:11 “Then the king of the south ⁵  will be enraged and will march out to fight against the king of the north, who will also muster a large army, but that army will be delivered into his hand. 11:12 When the army is taken away, the king of the south will become arrogant. ⁶  He will be responsible for the death ⁷  of thousands and thousands of people, ⁸  but he will not continue to prevail. 11:13 For the king of the north will again muster an army, one larger than before. At the end of some years he will advance with a huge army and enormous supplies.

11:14 “In those times many will oppose ⁹  the king of the south. ¹⁰  Those who are violent ¹¹  among your own people will rise up in confirmation of ¹²  the vision, but they will falter. 11:15 Then the king of the north will advance and will build siege mounds and capture a well-fortified city. ¹³  The forces of the south will not prevail, not even his finest contingents. ¹⁴  They will have no strength to prevail.

[11:9]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of the north) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:10]  ² sn The sons of Seleucus II Callinicus were Seleucus III Ceraunus (ca. 227-223 B.C.) and Antiochus III the Great (ca. 223-187 B.C.).

[11:10]  ³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the enemy of the king of the north) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he will certainly come and overflow and cross over and return and be aroused unto a fortress.” The translation has attempted to simplify the syntax of this difficult sequence.

[11:11]  ³ sn This king of the south refers to Ptolemy IV Philopator (ca. 221-204 B.C.).

[11:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “his heart will be lifted up.” The referent (the king of the south) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “cause to fall.”

[11:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “of myriads.”

[11:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “stand against.”

[11:14]  ⁶ sn This was Ptolemy V Epiphanes (ca. 203-181 B.C.).

[11:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “sons of violence.” “Son(s) is sometimes used idiomatically in Hebrew to indicate that someone is characterized by a certain quality. So the expression “sons of violence” means that these individuals will be characterized by violent deeds.

[11:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “to cause to stand.”

[11:15]  ⁶ sn This well-fortified city is apparently Sidon. Its capture from the Ptolemies by Antiochus the Great was a strategic victory for the Seleucid kingdom.

[11:15]  ⁷ tn Or “choice troops” (BDB 104 s.v. מִבְחָר), or “elite troops” (HALOT 542 s.v. מִבְחָר).