And he shall turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many; but a captain for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease he shall turn it upon him, without reproach for himself.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he shall turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land; and he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.
This verse ends the career of a king with a retreat, a stumble, and a disappearance. Two questions follow: who is this king, and why does God record the last steps of a Syrian ruler at all?
The king here is Antiochus, the king of the north. He had just taken many of the Greek islands, and then a new power stepped in:
Antiochus meddles with Greece and takes many of the islands. But this other prince, acting for himself, takes up the contest against the king of the north. Here a new power comes onto the scene — the first mention of the Romans. The prince who comes on his own behalf against the king of the north is a Roman consul. He will not allow Greece to be touched. It was one of the Scipios who stepped in… He is forced to return to Syria, but he will stumble and fall.
The fortresses of his own land are in Syria — home ground, not new ground. The turn homeward is not a strategy. It is what Rome left him.
The defeat cost money, and the money cost him his life:
A prince appeared on the scene, a Roman commander, for the Roman Republic was allied with Greece. He attacked and defeated the king in two decisive battles. He forced him to hand over the western half of his empire to his victors, and he also laid on him the payment of an immense tribute. To get the money for this tribute, the king of the north launched an expedition against a rich temple. He was killed while trying to plunder it, just as the prediction said: "He shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found" (v. 19).
Commentators differ on the exact circumstances of the death. Another writer, naming the battle that broke him, records it as a murder:
Later Scipio crushed him at the great battle of Magnesia. Verse 19 describes his end. He made peace and agreed to pay a heavy sum. While trying to collect it some months later, he was assassinated. So the words "He shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found" were fulfilled.
Either way the phrase holds. A man who once filled the map disappears from it.
Verse 19 is a hinge in the chapter. It closes the long stretch of wars that began back in verse 6, and Rome now sets the terms:
So we may say that verses 6-20 forecast the evil scheming and fighting of these kings, up to the point when the power of Rome became clear. Faced with that power, the king of the north of that day would "stumble and fall, and shall not be found". His successor had to be a mere "raiser of taxes", to meet the demands of Rome.
A conqueror gives way to a tax collector. That is how complete the fall was.
Syria and Egypt fought over a corridor, and God's people lived in it. That is why these reigns fill so much of the chapter:
These wars are given in such detail because of what they meant for the Jews and for the glorious land… That land lay between Syria and Egypt, so it formed the highway of approach from either country… God could not be indifferent to this, since it affected the welfare of His poor people who had returned from Babylon. That is why the Spirit of God has caused the account of all these wars to be recorded. It shows us the intensity of God's love for His people, whatever their state. It also teaches us that He watches how the movements of nations affect their interests.
This verse is one small piece of a chapter packed with exact predictions:
Daniel 11 gives us the most extraordinary and detailed prophecy in the whole Word of God. Think of what it foretells: the reigns of kings, royal marriages, wars, victories, defeats, plots, treaties, assassinations. All of this is very striking and unanswerable evidence that God knows the future. For who but God could write down such detailed prophecies, which have all come true except one? That one exception is still future, and its fulfilment will surely come.
- Checked — Rome stops the king's advance into Greece and the islands. Verse 19 begins where his winning stops.
- Turned — he heads back to the strongholds of his own land, not by choice — Rome has beaten him and sent him home.
- Fallen — the tribute Rome imposed drove his last move. Commentators differ on whether he died plundering a temple or was assassinated while raising the money. Both read his death as the fulfilment of "stumble and fall."
- Erased — "shall not be found" is literal. The empire-builder vanishes, and his successor is left as a mere raiser of taxes for Rome.
- Recorded — God tracks these kings because their wars ran through His people's land. The exactness of the record is itself evidence that He knows the future.