“In those times many will rise against the king of the South. The violent men among your own people will rebel in fulfillment of the vision, but without success. 15 Then the king of the North will come and build up siege ramps and will capture a fortified city. The forces of the South will be powerless to resist; even their best troops will not have the strength to stand. 16 The invader will do as he pleases; no one will be able to stand against him. He will establish himself in the Beautiful Land and will have the power to destroy it. 17 He will determine to come with the might of his entire kingdom and will make an alliance with the king of the South. And he will give him a daughter in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom, but his plans will not succeed or help him. 18 Then he will turn his attention to the coastlands and will take many of them, but a commander will put an end to his insolence and will turn his insolence back upon him. 19 After this, he will turn back toward the fortresses of his own country but will stumble and fall, to be seen no more.
20 “His successor will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor. In a few years, however, he will be destroyed, yet not in anger or in battle."
Daniel’s head must have been spinning from the mass of detail that the Angel gave him about the wars, bloodshed, and intrigue which in the near future would engulf the Jews. With each new revelation, Daniel realized how closely the future of the Jews was intertwined with the politics in the surrounding lands: Syria to the north, Egypt to the south. Understandably, Palestine would often be the scene of bloody struggles between these two rival powers.
The Angel continued to reveal details of the vision to Daniel. The restlessness and dissatisfaction with King Ptolemy was not limited to his own Egyptian subjects. Daniel learned what his own people would do under the conditions: “Violent men among your own people will rebel . . . but without success.” The internal dis sension in Egypt encouraged some of the Jews to rebel against Egyptian authority, under which they had fared reasonably well, and to try to reestablish their own independence. They therefore decided to support Antiochus of Syria in his struggle against the Egyptian king, now Ptolemy V. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus provides some detail showing how this prophecy was fulfilled.
The Jews of their own accord, went over to him [Antiochus] and received him into the city [Jerusalem] and gave plentiful provision to his army and to his elephants, and readily assisted him when he besieged the [Egyptian] garrison which was in the citadel of Jerusalem.
It isn’t by accident that Antiochus III of Syria has gone down in history as Antiochus the Great. In the dozen years that followed his earlier defeat by the Egyptians, Antiochus rebuilt his armies. In 203 B.C. he made his next attempt to seize Palestine from the Egyptians, as the Angel predicted he would. The “fortified city” that he besieged and captured is not identified; most commentators think it was Sidon in Phoenicia, along the Mediterranean coast. Even Egypt’s best troops were unable to halt the Syrian advance. The invading army had things pretty much its own way. “He will establish himself in the Beautiful Land.” Palestine came under Syrian control.
Antiochus’s master plan included becoming ruler not only of Egypt, but of the entire eastern Mediterranean. Since his armies were needed for military adventures elsewhere, he resolved to destroy Egypt another way. He arranged a political marriage between his daughter and the young prince of Egypt, trusting that his daughter would be loyal to her father.
“But his plans will not succeed.” Antiochus’s scheme backfired when his daughter did not cooperate. She was more interested in being a loyal wife to her new Egyptian husband than a tool of her Syrian father.
Things went sour for Antiochus not only in the south, but also in the west. He captured a number of islands near Greece and Turkey, and it was then that the Roman government felt itself threatened and attacked Antiochus. In 190 B.C. the Roman commander Lucius Scipio defeated the Syrians, and Syria came under the power of Rome. Antiochus’s grand plan had failed. He returned home in defeat and disgrace to seek the security of his own fortresses. Little more was heard of him.
The next king of Syria, Seleucus IV (187–175 B.C.) soon realized that Antiochus’s adventurism had been costly. The kingdom was nearly bankrupt, and on top of that the Romans demanded heavy tribute. Seleucus had to send out a special tax collector to raise money. One of the ways he did this was by robbing the treasury of the temple in Jerusalem. Compared to the 37-year reign of his famous father, Seleucus’s reign lasted only “a few years.” He died “not in anger or in battle”—most likely by assassination.