Kings of the South and North

And who was it that spoke, if not the angel who was given to the people, as he says in the law of Moses: “I will not go with you, because the people are stiff-necked; but my angel will go ahead, along with you”? This was the angel who stood against Moses at the lodging place, when he was bringing the child into Egypt uncircumcised. For Moses, who was the envoy and mediator of the law and had announced the covenant of the fathers, was not allowed to bring in an uncircumcised child, or the people would have taken him for a false prophet and a fraud. “And now,” he says, “I will show you the truth.” Could the Truth have shown anything but the truth?

So he says to him: “Look, three kings will stand up in Persia, and the fourth will be far richer than all of them; and when he has taken hold of his riches, he will stand up against all the kingdoms of Greece. And a mighty king will stand up and rule with great dominion and do as he pleases; and when his kingdom stands, it will be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven.” We have already gone through these things above, when we discussed the four beasts. But since Scripture now sets them out plainly a second time, we have to go through them a second time as well, so as not to leave Scripture unused and unexplained.

“Three kings will still stand up,” he says, “in Persia; and the fourth will be far richer than all of them.” This has been fulfilled. For after Cyrus came Darius, and then Artaxerxes. These were the three kings, and the Scripture is fulfilled. “And the fourth will be far richer than all of them.” Who is that but Darius, who reigned and made himself glorious — who was rich, and attacked all the kingdoms of Greece? Against him rose Alexander of Macedon, who destroyed his kingdom; and after he had broken the Persians, his own kingdom was divided toward the four winds of heaven. For at his death Alexander divided his kingdom into four principalities. “And a king will stand up and enter the stronghold of the king of Egypt.”

For Antiochus became king of Syria. He took the sovereignty in the 107th year of the kingdom of the Greeks. In those same years he made war on Ptolemy king of Egypt, defeated him, and won his power. On his way back from Egypt he went up to Jerusalem, in the 103rd year, carried off with him all the treasures of the Lord’s house, and marched to Antioch. Two years later the king sent his tax collector into the towns of Judea, to force the Jews to abandon the laws of their fathers and submit to the king’s decrees. He came and tried to force them, saying, “Come out and do what the king commands, and you will live.” But they said, “We will not come out, and we will not do what the king commands. We will die innocent.” And he killed a thousand of them. So the things spoken to the blessed Daniel are fulfilled: “And my servants will be afflicted, and will fall by famine and by sword and by captivity.” Daniel adds, however: “And they will be helped with a little help.” For at that time Mattathias arose, and Judas Maccabeus, and they helped them and rescued them from the hand of the Greeks.

So what the Scripture said was fulfilled. He goes on: “And the daughter of the king of the South will come to the king of the North to make an agreement with him; and the arms of the man who brings her will not stand; and she too will be struck down and will fall, and the man who brings her.” Now this was a certain Ptolemais, queen of Egypt. At that time she set out with her two sons, Ptolemy and Philometor, to make an agreement with Antiochus king of Syria; and when she came to Scythopolis she was killed there, for the man who brought her betrayed her. At that same time the two brothers went to war with each other, and Philometor was killed, and Ptolemy took the power. War, then, was made again by Ptolemy against Antiochus, and Antiochus met him. For this is what the Scripture says: “And the king of the South will stand up against the king of the North, and her seed will stand up against him.” And what seed but Ptolemy, who made war on Antiochus? Antiochus went out against him, and, failing to beat him, had to run; he went back to Antioch and gathered a larger army. Ptolemy then took his whole outfit and carried it into Egypt. And the Scripture is fulfilled, as Daniel says: “And he will carry off into Egypt their gods and their cast images and all their precious vessels of gold.” After this Antiochus went out a second time to make war on him, and beat Ptolemy. And after these events Antiochus began attacking the children of Israel again, and sent a man named Nicanor with a large army to subdue the Jews, at the time when Judas ruled the people after the death of Mattathias — and the rest of it, as it is written in the Maccabees. When these things had happened, the Scripture says again: “And another king will stand up, and he will prevail on the earth; and the king of the South will stand up, and he will get his daughter as his wife.”

For it happened that a certain Alexander arose, the son of Philip. He stood against Antiochus at that time, made war on him, cut him down, and took possession of the kingdom. Then he sent to Ptolemy king of Egypt, saying, “Give me your daughter Cleopatra as my wife.” And Ptolemy gave her to Alexander as his wife. And so the Scripture is fulfilled when it says: “And he will get his daughter as his wife.” And it says further: “And he will corrupt her, and she will not be his wife.” This too has been truly fulfilled. For after Ptolemy had given him his daughter, he came back and saw the mighty and glorious kingdom of Alexander. Wanting it for himself, he lied to Alexander, as the Scripture says: “And the two kings will speak lies at one table.” And in fact Ptolemy took himself off to Egypt, gathered a great army, and attacked the city at the time when Alexander had marched into Cilicia. Ptolemy then invaded the country and set garrisons throughout the cities; and when he had made himself master of Judea he set out for his daughter, and sent letters to Demetrius in the islands, saying, “Come and meet me here, and I will give you my daughter Cleopatra as your wife, for Alexander has tried to kill me.” Demetrius came, and Ptolemy received him and gave him the woman who had been meant for Alexander. So what is written is fulfilled: “And he will corrupt her, and she will not be his wife.” Alexander was killed. Then Ptolemy wore two crowns, the crown of Syria and the crown of Egypt, and died on the third day after he put them on. So what is written in the Scripture is fulfilled: “And they will not give him the glory of the kingdom.” For he died, and did not receive honor from everyone as king.

Then the prophet, after listing the things that have already taken place and were fulfilled in their own times, declares yet another mystery to us, pointing to the last times. For he says: “And another shameless king will rise up; and he will exalt himself above every god, and will magnify himself, and will say astonishing things, and will prosper until the anger is finished” — and so on. “And these will escape out of his hand: Edom, and Moab, and the chief part of the children of Ammon. And he will stretch out his hand over the land, and the land of Egypt will not escape. And he will have power over the hidden treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt and of the Libyans, and the Ethiopians in their strongholds.” So this is how the prophet sets out these things about the Antichrist, who will be shameless, a maker of war, and a despot; who, exalting himself above all kings and above every god, will build the city of Jerusalem and restore the sanctuary. The godless will worship him as God and will bend the knee to him, thinking him to be the Christ. He will cut off the two witnesses and forerunners of Christ, who proclaim his glorious kingdom from heaven, as it is said: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” It was announced to Daniel as well: “And one week will confirm a covenant with many; and in the middle of the week the sacrifice and the offering will be taken away” — so that the one week might be shown to be divided into two. The two witnesses, then, will preach for three and a half years; and Antichrist will make war on the saints during the rest of the week, and lay the world waste, so that what is written may be fulfilled: “And they will make the abomination of desolation for a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”

Daniel, then, has spoken of two abominations: one of destruction, and one of desolation. What is the one of destruction, but the one Antiochus set up there at that time? And what is the one of desolation, but the one that will be everywhere when Antichrist comes? “And there will escape out of his hand Edom, and Moab, and the chief part of the children of Ammon.” For these are the ones who ally themselves with him because they are his kin, and who are the first to address him as king. Those of Edom are the sons of Esau, who live on Mount Seir. And Moab and Ammon are the ones descended from his two daughters, as Isaiah also says: “And they will fly in the ships of foreigners, and they will also plunder the sea; and those from the east, and from the west, and from the north will give them honor; and the children of Ammon will be the first to obey them.” He will be proclaimed king by them, and will be magnified by all, and will show himself to be an abomination of desolation to the world, and will reign for a thousand two hundred and ninety days. “Blessed is the one who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days” — for when the abomination comes and makes war on the saints, whoever survives his days and reaches the forty-five days, while the other stretch of fifty days is running on, to him the kingdom of heaven comes. Antichrist does get into part of the fifty days, but the saints will inherit the kingdom along with Christ.

With these things told, Daniel goes on: “And look, two men were standing, one on this bank of the river and the other on that; and they said to the man who stood on the bank of the river, ‘How long until the end of these wonderful words you have spoken?’ And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the water of the river; and he lifted up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and swore by the one who lives forever that it will be for a time, times, and half a time; and they will know all these things when the scattering is finished.” Who, then, were the two men standing on the bank of the river, but the law and the prophets? And who was the one standing on the water, but the one they prophesied about long ago — who in the last times was to be attested by the Father at the Jordan, and pointed out boldly to the people by John, “who wore the scribe’s belt around his waist and was dressed in a linen coat of many colors”? These, then, question him, knowing that all government and power had been given to him, so as to learn from him exactly when he will bring the judgment on the world, and when the things he has spoken will be fulfilled. And he, wanting by every means to convince them, lifted his right hand and his left hand to heaven and swore by the one who lives forever. Who is it who swore, and by whom did he swear? Plainly the Son by the Father, saying: the Father lives forever, but in a time, and times, and half a time, when the scattering is finished, they will know all these things.

By stretching out his two hands he signified his suffering; and by mentioning “a time, and times, and half a time, when the scattering is finished,” he pointed to the three and a half years of Antichrist. For by “a time” he means a year, by “times” two years, and by “half a time” half a year. These are the thousand two hundred and ninety days that Daniel prophesied, for the completing of the suffering and the finishing of the scattering when Antichrist comes. In those days they will know all these things. And from the time the continual sacrifice is taken away, a thousand two hundred and ninety days are also reckoned. Then lawlessness will spread, as the Lord also says: “Because lawlessness will spread, the love of many will grow cold.” And there is no doubt that divisions will arise when the falling away takes place. And when divisions arise, love is chilled. The words “Blessed is the one who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days” have their value too, as the Lord said: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” So let us on no account give in to the falling away, in case lawlessness spreads and the abomination of desolation — that is, the adversary — overtakes us. And he said to him, “until evening” — that is, until the end — “and morning.” What is “morning”? The day of the resurrection. For that is the beginning of another age, as morning is the beginning of the day. And the thousand four hundred days are the light of the world. For when the light appears in the world — as he says, “I am the light of the world” — the sanctuary will be purged, as he said, of the adversary. For there is no way at all for it to be purged except by his destruction.

“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim.” The Scripture tells these things in order to point to the second captivity of the people, when Jehoiakim, and the three young men with him, along with Daniel, were taken captive and carried off. “And the Lord gave,” and so on. These words, “and the Lord gave,” are written so that no one reading the opening of the book may put their capture down to the strength of those who took them and the slackness of their own chief. And “with part” is well said, because the deportation was for the correction of the whole nation, not its ruin, so that the cause of it might not be misread. [aa]

“And Daniel resolved in his heart.” How blessed they are, who kept the covenant of the fathers like that, and did not break the law given through Moses, but feared the God he proclaimed. Though they were captives in a foreign land, they were not seduced by rich food, they were not slaves to the pleasures of wine, and they were not caught by the bait of a prince’s glory. They kept their mouths holy and pure, so that pure speech might come out of pure mouths and praise the heavenly Father with them. “Test your servants now.” They teach that it is not earthly food that gives people their beauty and strength, but the grace of God given through the Word. “And after a little.” You have seen the faith of the young men, which nothing could spoil, and their fear of God, which nothing could alter. They asked for a stretch of ten days, to prove by it that a person cannot find grace with God in any other way than by trusting the word preached by the Lord.

“And among them all, none was found like Daniel.” These men, who proved faithful witnesses in Babylon, were led by the Word in all wisdom, so that through them the idols of the Babylonians should be put to shame, and Nebuchadnezzar be overcome by three young men, and by their faith the fire in the furnace be held back, and the craving of the wicked elders be proved empty.