Daniel 11:1-45--The Kings of the South and the North

Daniel 11
English Standard Version

The Kings of the South and the North
11 “And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

2 “And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. 3 Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. 4 And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.

5 “Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority. 6 After some years they shall make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up, and her attendants, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times.

7 “And from a branch from her roots one shall arise in his place. He shall come against the army and enter the fortress of the king of the north, and he shall deal with them and shall prevail. 8 He shall also carry off to Egypt their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold, and for some years he shall refrain from attacking the king of the north. 9 Then the latter shall come into the realm of the king of the south but shall return to his own land.

10 “His sons shall wage war and assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall keep coming and overflow and pass through, and again shall carry the war as far as his fortress. 11 Then the king of the south, moved with rage, shall come out and fight against the king of the north. And he shall raise a great multitude, but it shall be given into his hand. 12 And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail. 13 For the king of the north shall again raise a multitude, greater than the first. And after some years he shall come on with a great army and abundant supplies.

14 “In those times many shall rise against the king of the south, and the violent among your own people shall lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail. 15 Then the king of the north shall come and throw up siegeworks and take a well-fortified city. And the forces of the south shall not stand, or even his best troops, for there shall be no strength to stand. 16 But he who comes against him shall do as he wills, and none shall stand before him. And he shall stand in the glorious land, with destruction in his hand. 17 He shall set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring terms of an agreement and perform them. He shall give him the daughter of women to destroy the kingdom, but it shall not stand or be to his advantage. 18 Afterward he shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall capture many of them, but a commander shall put an end to his insolence. Indeed, he shall turn his insolence back upon him. 19 Then he shall turn his face back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found.

20 “Then shall arise in his place one who shall send an exactor of tribute for the glory of the kingdom. But within a few days he shall be broken, neither in anger nor in battle. 21 In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. 22 Armies shall be utterly swept away before him and broken, even the prince of the covenant. 23 And from the time that an alliance is made with him he shall act deceitfully, and he shall become strong with a small people. 24 Without warning he shall come into the richest parts of the province, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor his fathers' fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and goods. He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time. 25 And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south shall wage war with an exceedingly great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for plots shall be devised against him. 26 Even those who eat his food shall break him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. 27 And as for the two kings, their hearts shall be bent on doing evil. They shall speak lies at the same table, but to no avail, for the end is yet to be at the time appointed. 28 And he shall return to his land with great wealth, but his heart shall be set against the holy covenant. And he shall work his will and return to his own land.

29 “At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before. 30 For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. 31 Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. 32 He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. 33 And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. 34 When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, 35 and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.

36 “And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done. 37 He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all. 38 He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. 39 He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price.

40 “At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through. 41 He shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites. 42 He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train. 44 But news from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. 45 And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him.

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Don't forget as we start chapter 11 that this is still the anger who appeared in Daniel 10 speaking to Daniel.  The angel says that he has been at work to minister to the different Persian kings and to strengthen them since the time of Darius the Mede (who conquered Babylon in chapter 6).  However, the time of the Persian Empire has come to an end, and Greece is about to conquer the world.

The angel gives Daniel a timeline that there will be three more Persian kings before a king far richer than all of them arises.  He will use his war to make war with the other nations, and he will go to war against Greece and will lose.  Alexander the Great will quickly conquer everything that was the Persian Empire and add more territory to it, but he will not live long.  His kingdom will be divided among four generals who were not his sons.

After this, there will be two pieces of the remnants of the Greek Empire that will be fighting over the Holy Land, one from the North and one from the South.  The "King of the North" is the Seleucid kingdom (actually a series of kings with one in particular being Antiochus IV Epiphanies that we've already talked about being an Antichrist-like figure) and the "king of the South" is the Ptolemy kingdom of Greeks that ruled Egypt.

There is so much here that I'll link to two Got Questions articles for you that will go verse by verse and explain the fulfillment. 

Who is the king of the North in Daniel 11?
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​Who is the king of the South in Daniel 11?​

​I hope you find these articles helpful in understanding this prophecy.  Again, the was prophesied hundreds of years before it happened and with such great specificity that skeptics argue that this had to be written after the fact and written as if God prophesied the events ahead of time because in the skeptic's mind, there is no way for the LORD to give such specific details about future events.  The skeptics are wrong and their assumptions lead to other contradictions they won't admit (things Daniel giving specific details that wouldn't be included in a story you were making up hundreds of years after the fact).  God is able to see the past, present and future clearly because He is outside of time.  It is nothing for him to reveal future events to the pagan kings or to his servant Daniel.  However, there was a difference in expectation of reaction to these dreams.  The LORD expected the pagan kings to fear, tremble and repent because of what they saw.  Daniel saw the same things and was expected to rejoice and feel at peace because the LORD and His Kingdom would be victorious and His plan of salvation for His people and the coming of His Messiah would not be thwarted by evil men and evil empires.  Yet, we see reactions we don't expect.  The pagan kings do repent and give great doxology and command all the earth to join them in worship and Daniel is fearful of the bits that he does not understand even though the LORD continually sends him angels to comfort him and tell him not to be afraid.  I'm not saying I would be any different and I know we are not different today, because we approach the book of Revelation very much the same way to this day.  Jesus gave those words to John to comfort the persecuted church, and yet, comfort is usually the last word that we would associate with the book of Revelation.  We are to focus on the promise of the end of the book that is certain and sweet and understand that the plagues and judgments described in the middle of the book are not meant for those who are in Christ (we can look back to the plagues that fell on Egypt on how God's people were safe in the Land of Goshen).  God will allow the kingdoms of this world to persecute the Church and kill many Christians, but it will not stop His gospel message from going forth to the whole world--God will send witnesses from heaven and angels if necessary to make sure the gospel goes out even to those who refuse to listen and then the end will come.  The day of the LORD that we will read about in the Minor Prophets to come is a day of wrath for the kingdoms of this world, but it is a day of salvation, blessing and reward for those who are part of the kingdom of God.  We should not fear even we read passages like this that re the equivalent of being stuck in the middle of what seemed like a World War.  God is still in control and these nations that rage are still working according to His perfect will in His perfect time.  At just the right time, Christ died, the Righteous for the unrighteous.  

Galatians 4:4-5
English Standard Version
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Ephesians 1:7-12
English Standard Version
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.