And the king of the south, who is one of his princes, shall be strong; but [another] shall be stronger than he, and have dominion his dominion shall be a great dominion.
Verse 5 turns from Alexander's divided empire to the men who took pieces of it. Scripture marks them by direction — south and north of one small strip of land — and their rival dynasties fill the next thirty verses.
Scripture leaves both men unnamed. One writer goes through the verse clause by clause, quoting an older translation, and supplies the names from history.
Now we are told that "the king of the south shall be strong." He is the person well known as one of the Ptolemies, or Lagidae. Then comes "one of his princes" — that is, one of Alexander's chiefs — "and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion." This is another person: the first king of the north, who rises in strength above Ptolemy. Secular history calls him Seleucus.
Translators handle the phrase "one of his princes" differently. Another writer sets that question aside, because it does not change who the verse means:
There is no need to discuss the translation. It is enough to say that most take this sentence to apply to the king of the north. Here we have the founders of the two dynasties: Ptolemy and Seleucus, two of the four who succeeded to Alexander's kingdom.
The directions are not neutral. Scripture measures them from one fixed point, and that point shows what God has His eye on.
We must remember, if we want to understand this prophecy, that even the geography of Scripture is always measured from the position of the Holy Land. A king of the south is a king to the south of Palestine. Palestine is the centre of all God's thoughts about the government of this world. Jerusalem is His chosen city.
From this verse onward the two titles repeat many times. They do not stay attached to the two men who first wore them.
The prophecy that follows calls the rulers of these kingdoms the king of the south, or Egypt, and the king of the north, or Syria. These titles do not always refer to the same person. They serve as official titles for kings of the same line.
Long lists of foreign kings can look like wasted space in a book about God's people. One writer explains why they are here: Israel's land lay between the two armies.
Scripture gives them in such detail because of what they meant for the Jews and the glorious land… As the two hostile countries invaded each other, their armies marched again and again through the land. Judea belonged to whichever king had won at the moment… God could not be indifferent to this, for it touched the welfare of His poor people who had returned from Babylon. That is why the Spirit of God has had the account of all these wars written down. It shows us the intensity of God's love for His people, whatever their state.
This accuracy is what has drawn attacks on the book of Daniel for centuries.
In the third century the pagan Porphyry made a bitter attack on the belief that Daniel wrote these predictions. He made it in his book "Treatise against Christians." He argued that someone wrote it all after the events had taken place. The critics use the same arguments… The prophecies given here came true in exact detail during the years 301 B.C. to 168 B.C. History verifies everything.
The line that starts in verse 5 does not just fade out. It leads to a man who becomes a picture of a later enemy.
Daniel 11:1-35 is a history of the wars between the king of the north (Syria) and the king of the south (Egypt). Both were branches of the Greek empire. The fighting often took place in Palestine, which lay between them… Daniel 11:21 to 35 refer to Antiochus Epiphanes. He is a type of the king of the north, the Assyrian of the last days.
- Named — The strong southern king is Ptolemy of Egypt. The prince who outgrows him is Seleucus, the first king of the north. Both followed Alexander, and each founded a dynasty.
- Measured — "South" and "north" count from Israel's land, the centre of all God's thoughts about the government of this world.
- Repeated — The two titles are offices, not people. Later verses pass them on to the next kings in each line.
- Recorded — These wars fill the page because the armies crossed God's land and touched God's people. The detail is a measure of His love for them.
- Verified — History matched the prophecy between 301 and 168 B.C. Critics could only answer that someone wrote it later.
And after the course of years they shall join affinity; and the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make equitable conditions but she shall not retain the strength of her arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm; and she shall be given up, she and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in [those] times.
Verse 5 set two rival kingdoms side by side. Verse 6 shows them trying for peace through a royal marriage — and names how the plan collapsed and who died with it.
The chapter ignores most of the ancient world and follows only two powers: one north, one south. North and south of what?
The other kingdoms are not noticed, only those of the north and of the south. Why are they so described? Palestine is the place from which God reckons. The king of the north means north of the land that His eyes were upon. The southern power means south of that same land. These are the countries commonly called Syria and Egypt.
The same two labels run through the whole chapter. But they do not always mean the same two men. Verse 6 is the first place this becomes clear.
In this chapter we do not have the same king of the north all the way through, nor the same king of the south. We have a great many who follow one another. The same official title runs throughout. As people say in law, the king, or the queen, never dies. That is how we are to look at it here. This sixth verse is an instance… These are not the same kings of the north and south as in verse 5. They are their descendants.
The opening phrase points to a gap of time before the alliance. And the wedding itself demanded an act of cruelty.
The expression in verse 6, "in the end of years," shows that time passes. And in fact Seleucus's grandson, Antiochus II, carried out a treaty of peace with Ptolemy Philadelphus. Antiochus confirmed it by marrying Ptolemy's daughter, Bernice. In order to do this he repudiated his lawful wife, Laodike.
Note: older translations read "in the end of years" where the ESV has "after some years."
The verse says the bride will not keep the strength of her arm. She, her attendants, her father and her supporter will all be given up. The history turns on a discarded wife.
Antiochus II was at war with Ptolemy. Peace came on one condition: he must put away his wife Laodice and marry Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy. He did this. But when Philadelphus died, he took Laodice back. She feared another divorce, so she poisoned her husband. Then she caused the death of Berenice and her son.
The plan did not just fail. It became the cause of the next round of bloodshed, in verses 7–9.
This queen, Berenice, was murdered, and so were her husband (the king of the north), her son, and her attendants. In this way the plan meant to bring friendship became the ground of future quarrels and conflicts. The next three verses (7-9) describe how the murder of Berenice was avenged. One out of a branch of her "roots" — another king of the south — invaded Syria, entered "into the fortress of the king of the north," and prevailed.
Kelly sees God's own hand behind the failure of these alliances.
But God never allowed rest to those who took His land. They might intermarry and make alliances, but it only proved the prelude to worse outbreaks — brothers, sons and grandsons taking up the quarrels of their family.
A murdered queen in a foreign court seems far from Scripture's usual concerns. The answer lies in the land caught between the two powers.
These wars are told in such detail because of what they meant for the Jews and the glorious land… It lay between them, and so formed the highway of approach from either country. So the armies of the two hostile countries kept marching through the land as they invaded each other… God could not be indifferent to this, for it affected the welfare of His poor people who had returned from Babylon. That is why the Spirit of God had the account of all these wars written down. It shows us the intensity of God's love for His people, whatever their state. It also teaches us that He sees the movements of nations as affecting His people's interests.
Verse 6 is one small item in a chapter full of such predictions.
Daniel 11 gives us the most extraordinary and detailed prophecy in the whole Word of God. It foretells the reigns of kings, royal marriages, wars, victories, defeats, plots, treaties and assassinations. Remember that, and you have striking and unanswerable evidence of divine foreknowledge. For who but God could write down such detailed prophecies? They have all come true except one. That one is still future, and it waits for a fulfilment that will surely come.
- Location — north and south count from one fixed point: the land God was watching. Everything in the chapter takes its bearings from it.
- Office — the two titles pass down through ruler after ruler, like a crown that never dies. Verse 6 already speaks of descendants, not the men of verse 5.
- Alliance — the kings bought peace by setting aside a wife and sending a daughter. The plan carried its own destruction inside it.
- Outcome — murder took the bride, her husband, her son and her attendants. The peace treaty became the seed of the next war.
- Purpose — God recorded these palace crimes because His people lived on the road between the armies. The detail shows His care. Its accuracy shows His foreknowledge.