And forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, the fortress, and shall take away the continual [sacrifice], and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.
In Daniel 11:31 a king turns armed force against worship itself. Commentators have long debated two questions here: who these forces belong to, and whether the verse is history, prophecy, or both.
Two phrases carry the weight: where the forces come from, and what they attack. One writer works from an older translation to bring out the sense:
"And arms shall stand on his part" — or, more literally, "forces [arms] shall rise from [out of] him." The phrase "shall rise from him," or "shall come from him," can be used in two senses. It can mean a king's lieutenant, the man who takes his place as commander. Or it can mean the man who succeeds him in the government. … "They [the arms] shall pollute the sanctuary of strength [or, which is the fortress]."
Rome had just blocked the king and sent him home beaten. His rage then found a softer target:
This was a death-blow to all his policy. He went home a miserable, defeated man, his heart bitter and furious, though he put on a humble face before the Romans. What was to stop him from pouring out the anger of his heart on the Jews? … Poor as the Jews were, they were witnesses for God upon the earth; and Antiochus hurries to pour out his fury on everything among them that bore witness to God. This was his ruin, and brought God's vengeance upon him.
The historical record in 1 Maccabees matches the verse point by point, and it names what took the place of the worship of God:
This is referred to in 1 Maccabees: "The king had sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, telling them to follow the strange laws of the land. They were to forbid burnt offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings in the temple. They were to profane the sabbaths and festival days, and pollute the sanctuary and the holy people. They were to set up altars, groves and chapels of idols, and sacrifice pig's flesh and unclean animals … so that they might forget the law, and change all the ordinances." … From other sources we learn that Antiochus commanded the worship of Jupiter Olympius in place of the worship of the God of heaven, Jehovah.
Stopping the offering and setting up the idol belong together, and one explains the other:
… the taking away of sacrifice is for, or goes with, the setting up of the abomination. In the ninth chapter it should be clear, then, why as soon as we hear of the one, we hear of the other: "because of the wing of abominations [there shall be] a desolator," as it reads literally: idolatrous abominations bring the desolation.
Many readers assume Jesus had this verse in mind when He spoke of "the abomination of desolation." One writer argues that He pointed to Daniel 12:11 instead, because the two expressions differ:
The expressions the Holy Spirit uses in Dan. 11:31 and in Dan. 12:11 differ. In Dan. 11:31 it means the abomination of him that desolates, or of the desolator. Whereas in Dan. 12:11 the true meaning is that which is given in our Lord's words — not the abomination of him that makes desolate, but the "abomination of desolation" … the desolation spoken of in Dan. 11 is past, and the desolation of Dan. 12, that our Lord draws attention to, is future.
Here the writers differ. One keeps verse 31 in the past, and treats Antiochus as a pattern of a worse ruler to come:
His conduct, above all at the close, in meddling with the Jews, and their city, and their sanctuary, gave the occasion for a type of the last king of the north. That king will follow in his predecessors' path, except that his guilt will be graver beyond comparison in the sight of God … Antiochus Epiphanes was only a type, and verse 31 does not go beyond his history, except as a foreshadowing.
Another looks for a future fulfilment, carried out by someone acting for a coming king of the north:
Someone will come on behalf of the man who will be the king of the north in those times. He will bring his forces — his arms — into the holy place. He will defile the sanctuary, and set up "the abomination that makes desolate."
- Force — The verse opens with armed men. The wording allows either a deputy or a successor acting for the king.
- Fury — Rome blocked the king and shamed him. He turned his anger on the one people still bearing witness to God, and that brought God's judgment on him.
- Fulfilment — 1 Maccabees records the details: offerings banned, the sanctuary defiled, and the worship of Jupiter Olympius set up in God's place.
- Formula — Removing the sacrifice and setting up the idol go together. Idolatrous abominations are what bring the desolation.
- Future — Commentators differ. Some read verse 31 as past history, with a worse ruler foreshadowed in Antiochus. Others look for a coming king of the north. One writer holds that Jesus pointed to Daniel 12:11, not to this verse.
And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he pervert by flatteries; but the people that know their God shall be strong, and shall act.
A foreign king is pressing Jerusalem, and the pressure splits God's people in two. Some he wins with smooth words; the rest know their God — and the question this verse raises is what that knowledge produces.
One word keeps coming back in the verses around this one.
Notice that these verses mention the 'covenant' no less than four times, and three of those times the word 'holy' goes with it. What God has covenanted and decreed is always the object of the devil's attack. This man was without doubt an agent of Satan, working to overturn what remained of the worship of the one true God at Jerusalem.
That king was Antiochus Epiphanes. He tried to stamp out the Jewish religion itself. He put a pagan statue in the most holy place and defiled God's sanctuary with what the law forbade (William Kelly).
The commentators quote an older translation here. Where the ESV has "seduce with flattery" and "stand firm and take action," they read "corrupt by flatteries" and "be strong and do exploits." The word translated "corrupt" is stronger than it sounds.
He will corrupt those who do wickedly as to the covenant — that is, the Jews who are not true to Jewish hopes. He will push them into giving up their faith altogether. That is the force of the word translated 'he will corrupt'. But "the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits." Here the Jews are divided into true and false, and good and evil each develop.
Flattery works on people who are already willing to bend. One commentator sees the same method in a later king whom Antiochus pictures in advance.
There will be a lamb-like air about him. But those God has chosen do not know the voice of strangers, and in their ears his voice is the voice of the dragon. Antiochus, who is another picture of him, worked his way in the same manner. "And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries." All this deceives the mass of the people and leads them away; but the remnant — "the people that do know their God" — are kept safe.
The Maccabees fulfilled the second half. They were Jewish fighters who resisted Antiochus, and one commentator praises their strength without idealising them.
Near the end of his history, resistance to his aim led to a famous revival among the Jews. The Jewish heroes known as the Maccabees resisted his generals... They were no models of piety or patience. But, as Daniel says, they were strong and "did exploits." No phrase could describe them more accurately.
Antiochus never had the field to himself.
In those days there were not only wicked people whom he could corrupt. There were also 'people that do know their God', and 'that understand among the people'. This is always God's way; He does not leave Himself without a witness of some kind.
The next verse adds one more group to the picture.
God preserved a faithful remnant, and these, knowing their God, were strong and did exploits. The next verse brings in a smaller group — "they that understand among the people." So there were, we think, three classes of Jews. First, the mass, whom flatteries corrupted. Second, the faithful remnant, who refused to give up keeping the law of their God. Last, some among the remnant who, being taught of God, could instruct the others in the word and encourage them in the path of faithfulness, whatever persecution they might face.
Where does such knowledge of God come from? One commentator traces it back to earlier obedience.
Their obedience not only brought reward, it prepared them for the days ahead. In trials and exercise they would learn the character of their God. "The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" — and so it was.
One commentator warns against applying these words directly to the Christian.
We need to look in quite another direction... for the right application of the words "the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits." It is the glory of the Christian to suffer. The Maccabees really did exploits... The mistake is applying all this to the present Christian period.
- Attack — these verses name the covenant four times, and what God has covenanted is always what Satan attacks.
- Flattery — his first weapon is not force but smooth words. To "corrupt" here means to push people into giving up their faith, and it works only on those already false to the covenant.
- Knowledge — knowing God is the dividing line, and that knowledge grows beforehand, through obedience and trial.
- Witness — God never leaves Himself without a witness. Beside the corrupted mass stood a remnant, and inside it teachers who taught the rest.
- Restraint — the exploits belong to the Maccabees. One commentator warns that the Christian's calling is to suffer, not to copy their heroism.
And they that are wise among the people shall instruct the many; and they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, [many] days.
Daniel's vision has just described a king who corrupts God's people by flattery. Now the angel turns to those who stand firm, and puts two things side by side: they teach the whole nation, and they suffer for it.
This verse sits inside a long account of a king who tried to destroy the faith of the Jews. The writers below follow older translations, which call the wise "they that understand among the people."
In those days there were not only wicked men whom he could corrupt. There were also "people who know their God," and those "that understand among the people." This is always God's way. He does not leave Himself without a witness of some kind. Here we have a prediction of what happened in those dark days. God raised up the Maccabees, zealous and God-fearing men. Under their leadership deliverance came at last, though not without much loss and suffering, as verse 33 shows.
The wise are not just the faithful. They are a smaller circle inside them, marked out by what they can pass on.
In the next verse a smaller class comes into view — "they that understand among the people." So we think there were three classes of Jews. First, the mass whom flatteries corrupted. Second, the faithful remnant, who refused to give up keeping the law of their God. Last, some among the remnant who, being taught of God, could instruct the others in the word and encourage them in the path of faithfulness, whatever persecution they might face. This class appears again in chapter 12:3, and its members are called "the Maschilim."
One Hebrew detail settles how wide the teaching reaches, and where the teachers got what they teach.
In Daniel 9:27, 11:33 and 12:3 the word translated "many" has the article in Hebrew. It means the mass of the people, which makes the sense of these verses much simpler. The reader will also notice, in contrast with the masses (Dan. 11:33), "the Maschilim," a word found in the titles of many of the Psalms. Those who understand, those who are taught of God, will instruct the many. In these times of trial, love for the truth will be at work.
English translations drop that article. The persecutor behind these days also has a name.
Here we have those who were persecuted by their enemy — Antiochus Epiphanes. The phrase means "the" many. It is a pity that the article is not carried over into English where it stands in the Hebrew.
Sword, flame, captivity and plunder fall on the very people who teach. There is a reason they are the target.
Satan's hatred was aimed above all at this class — those who publicly stood with God's testimony on the earth.
Their fall then tests everyone watching.
The trial of faith will come through them. As faithful Jews, one might have supposed that such men could surely count on the help of God, for they have been urging others to "trust in the Lord." Yet some of them are to fall. Then, unless faith is very strong, the others will say "Where is their God?" as in Psalms 42 and 43.
This pattern is not sealed in the past. God has given the same help to His people again and again, and will give it once more.
One striking feature is the repeated mention of those "that understand among the people." They seem to be a class raised up to help Israel in that dark day. God has always provided this resource for His people, especially in difficult times. Long ago there were men of Issachar, who "had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do" (1 Chron. 12:32). The remnant in the days of Ezra had help from "men of understanding," and it will be the same with the remnant in the future.
Commentators read this loss as sowing, not waste.
This chosen remnant of faithful souls, faithful through grace in a day of the most extreme pressure and persecution, will truly "sow" in tears… But the seed is steeped in their tears and sown in sorrow. In its own time it will sprout, spring up, and bring a rich harvest, when the sower and the reaper will rejoice together.
- Taught — the wise are "taught of God"; God gives them their understanding.
- Teaching — what they receive they pass on, instructing not a select few but the mass of the people.
- Targeted — Satan aims at those who carry God's testimony, so the teachers themselves fall by sword, flame, captivity and plunder.
- Tested — when such men fall, others are shaken and ask where their God is; the trial of faith comes through them.
- Timeless — God has always raised up men of understanding for dark days, and He will do it again. Their tears sow a harvest.
And when they fall, they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.
Daniel 11 has just described God's people falling under a persecuting king, and now the angel turns to the moment they stumble. Why is the help only little, and why does success bring false friends?
Who gave that little help? Commentators point to the Maccabees and their revolt against Antiochus.
But they are not left completely in the hands of the enemy. "When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery" (v. 34). It could hardly be otherwise. This prophetic account points plainly to the uprising and brave resistance of the Maccabees against the cruelty and profanity of their oppressor. At the start of their rebellion, at least, there was real zeal for God, for His temple and for His law. The success God granted them was great. For years they held back the whole power of the king of the north. Victory after victory, they kept up their just and holy cause.
The men God used here fought back, and that sets them apart from believers at the end.
The Maccabees did "exploits." They were heroes, not martyrs, and God used them as such, for they were faithful to His word. But those of "the end" will be saints, not heroes, and will perish, as we find from Revelation. The cross comes between, and alters these things.
Why call the help little? Because God promised Israel a rescue on another scale altogether, and this was not it.
From Jeremiah's day to this, Israel and Jacob have never known such trouble together with such deliverance. The Maccabean successes over their enemies were nothing compared with this prophecy. We also have a prediction of them in Daniel 11. Josephus and the Apocrypha give a history of them, but Scripture does not stoop to record the Maccabean successes.
Why would flatterers attach themselves to a persecuted people? Because the Maccabees started winning.
All this is now a matter of history. It is recalled here only to explain the last clause of verse 34: "many shall join themselves to them with flattery." After the reign of Antiochus, faction and civil strife tore Syria apart, and the Maccabean leaders were courted as often as they were threatened.
The flattery had an end point. Kelly follows it to the man who ended up on the throne.
So it happened that Antipater, the Edomite father of Herod, got in. For the family had not a shadow of right to reign over the Jews. He simply sided with the last unworthy descendant of the Maccabees, and with Roman help he slipped into power. But God allowed such repayment in His providence, to humble His guilty people.
Who are the "many" who join them? Not the "many" of the verse before.
The wise ones too were among the people, the Jews; and "the many" in verse 33, not in 34, is a technical phrase meaning the mass of that nation.
English hides a difference the Hebrew makes.
The phrase means "the" many. It is a pity that the article is not carried over into English where it stands in the Hebrew. For there are the two forms: the word "many" sometimes with the article, and sometimes without it.
Does the verse only record old events? Dennett says no.
But remember: this is history, yet not only history. Antiochus himself, as pointed out again and again, is a pattern of someone still to come. Many of the events of his reign, above all his actions in Jerusalem, are patterns too, so many of these things will happen again at the close.
- Fall. God's people stumble under persecution. Help comes at the point of collapse, not before.
- Help. That help was the Maccabean rising: real zeal, real victory, real deliverance from the king of the north.
- Little. The verse calls it little on purpose. Next to the rescue God promised Israel, these successes count as nothing, and Scripture never records them.
- Flattery. Success drew flatterers as well as enemies. In the end an outsider with no right to the throne slipped into power, and God allowed it to humble His people.
- Again. The account is history, but not only history. Antiochus and his reign are patterns of what will happen again at the end.
And [some] of the wise shall fall, to try them, and to purge and to make them white, to the time of the end for it shall yet be for the time appointed.
This verse closes the long stretch of Daniel 11 that history has already matched. It ends with a hard fact: some of the people who understood God's mind fell. The words that follow — refined, purified, made white, "until the time of the end" — show that their fall was no accident. God set both its purpose and its limit.
In Daniel, "the wise" are not simply clever people. The word behind the title points to instruction, and it appears in the Psalms too.
The word means 'instruction,' and the Psalms that carry it in their headings convey instruction to the remnant, which they will understand. The same word in the plural (maschilim) means 'the wise, or the instructed ones.' See Dan. 11:33, 35; Dan. 12:3, 10.
You would expect God to shield these people above all others. When they fall instead, it shakes the faith of everyone watching.
The trial of faith will come through them. They are faithful Jews, and you would suppose that people like these could count on God's help, since they have been encouraging others to "trust in the Lord." Yet some of them are to fall. Then, unless faith is very strong, the others will say, "Where is their God?" — as in Psalms 42 and 43. Those Psalms express, in the language of the Spirit of Christ, the anguish of the remnant, whose enemies say, "Where is their God?" And when these understanding ones who had hope in Him fall, unbelievers will say that God does not step in to help them.
Their enemies act, but God allows it. And He allows it with an outcome in view.
In this terrible time, there will be among the Jews those who know their God. They will be strong, act for their God, and teach many His ways and His mind. As a result they will face persecution, violence and prison for many days. Yet in all their sorrows they will be helped. God will allow it all, to test and prove them, with the reward and glory of the end in view. That end will surely come, because God has appointed it.
Daniel uses this phrase again a few verses later. Readers naturally ask how much time it covers.
"The end" or "the time of the end" is a technical term in prophecy. So Daniel 11:35 tells us that some of the understanding ones would be tried, that is persecuted, and would fall, that is die as martyrs, "until the time of the end." Verse 40 then predicts war by the king of the south and by the king of the north "at the time of the end." … So "the end" is a period in which events happen. It is not the exact moment when the Son of Man comes, but the last short stretch of time.
Commentators read this verse as the seam of the chapter. They point to its own closing words as the join.
Certain disasters were to go on "until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time." There is no place in the chapter where the interruption of the history so well fits in as after verse 35.
The gap it leaves is enormous:
Down to Dan. 11:35 everything has been already fulfilled. We read of plots and wars between successive kings of the North and of the South (Syria and Egypt), with the holy land as their battle ground. There is a gap of more than twenty centuries between verses 35 and 36. From the days of the Maccabees we pass to the world's last crisis.
This is real history, but it is not only history. The verse's own wording points ahead.
Antiochus caused "the abomination that makes desolate" to be set up in the temple; in Daniel 12:11 we learn that this act will be repeated in a future day. … Take verse 35, where we read that God will allow some of the wise to fall, to test faith, "to purge" the remnant, and "to make them white, until the time of the end." The very language shows that God gives what took place then as a sample of a similar thing in the last days.
- Wise — "the wise" are the instructed ones, the maschilim. They teach others God's mind, and the same word links this verse to Daniel 12.
- Fall — the ones you would expect God to spare are the ones who fall, and their fall is what tests everyone else's faith: "Where is their God?"
- Refined — God permits the suffering to prove His people, with reward and glory in view.
- Appointed — the trial runs only "to the time of the end," a fixed last period whose end God has already set.
- Sample — the verse marks where fulfilled history stops. What happened then previews the same testing in the last crisis.