Context: The heavenly messenger is still speaking to Daniel.

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2 Now then, I will tell you the truth: Three more kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. By the power of his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece.

3 Then a mighty king will arise, who will rule with great authority and do as he pleases. 4 But as soon as he is established, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the authority with which he ruled, because his kingdom will be uprooted and given to others.

5 The king of the South will grow strong, but one of his commanders will grow even stronger and will rule his own kingdom with great authority.

6 After some years they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the South will go to the king of the North to seal the agreement. But his daughter will not retain her position of power, nor will his strength endure. At that time she will be given up, along with her royal escort and her father[C] and the one who supported her.

7 But one from her family line will rise up in his place, come against the army of the king of the North, and enter his fortress, fighting and prevailing. 8 He will take even their gods captive to Egypt, with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold. For some years he will stay away from the king of the North, 9 who will invade the realm of the king of the South and then return to his own land.

10 But his sons will stir up strife and assemble a great army, which will advance forcefully, sweeping through like a flood, and will again carry the battle as far as his fortress. 11 In a rage, the king of the South will march out to fight the king of the North, who will raise a large army, but it will be delivered into the hand of his enemy.

12 When the army is carried off, the king of the South will be proud in heart and will cast down tens of thousands, but he will not triumph. 13 For the king of the North will raise another army, larger than the first, and after some years he will advance with a great army and many supplies.

14 In those times many will rise up against the king of the South. Violent ones among your own people will exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they will fail.

15 Then the king of the North will come, build up a siege ramp, and capture a fortified city. The forces of the South will not stand; even their best troops will not be able to resist. 16 The invader will do as he pleases, and no one will stand against him. He will establish himself in the Beautiful Land, with destruction in his hand. 17 He will resolve to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and will reach an agreement with the king of the South. He will give him a daughter in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom, but his plan will not succeed or help him.

18 Then he will turn his face to the coastlands and capture many of them. But a commander will put an end to his reproach and will turn it back upon him. 19 After this, he will turn back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and be no more.

20 In his place one will arise who will send out a tax collector for the glory of the kingdom; but within a few days he will be destroyed, though not in anger or in battle.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

This chapter is an amazingly detailed prophetic description of a series of major historical rulers and wars in the centuries following the Jewish exile in Babylon. It starts with a quick summary of kings of the Persian Empire (v 2). But in verse 3, Daniel is told of a “mighty king” who will arise. Historically, this is Alexander the Great, the Macedonian general who defeated Persia and established the Greek Empire.

The rest of the vision focuses on the complicated military conflicts that happened between two competing kingdoms within the Greek Empire. One is known as the Seleucid Empire, and it controlled western Asia and the Middle East. The other is the Ptolemaic Kingdom, which controlled Egypt and northern Africa. So when the vision talks about the “king of the North” and the “king of the South,” it is talking about various Greek kings who ruled over the Middle East (the North) and Egypt (the South).

Caught in the middle of these great Greek wars, like meat in a sandwich, were Jerusalem and the land of Judea – “the Beautiful Land” (v 16).

Today’s passage is really setting things up for a particular “king of the North” who will rise to power in tomorrow’s reading. For today, spend time interceding in prayer for our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who are caught in warzones: in the Middle East, Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan and South Sudan, and West Africa.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our Senior Minister.