“With a large army he will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the South. The king of the South will wage war with a large and very powerful army, but he will not be able to stand because of the plots devised against him. 26 Those who eat from the king’s provisions will try to destroy him; his army will be swept away, and many will fall in battle. 27 The two kings, with their hearts bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no avail, because an end will still come at the appointed time. 28 The king of the North will return to his own country with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant. He will take action against it and then return to his own country.
During his dozen years of reign, Antiochus invaded Egypt four times, with varying degrees of success. Although Antiochus’ Egyptian rival, “the king of the South,” had large armies, he was unable to defeat the Syrians “because of the plots devised against him.” Daniel’s heavenly messenger predicted that Ptolemy’s trusted friends, who would be expected to support him and who “eat from the king’s provisions,” would prove disloyal. As a result, Antiochus’s first campaign against Egypt resulted in defeat for the armies of Egypt.
When the Egyptian people learned of this defeat, they dethroned their king Ptolemy Philometor and replaced him with his brother. Antiochus saw an opportunity here and sought the help of the ex-king in his struggle against the new king, Ptolemy Euergetes. “The two . . . will sit at the same table and lie to each other.” To gain the cooperation of the dethroned king, Antiochus would profess friendship for him, as well as the desire to help him regain his throne. And Philometor would pretend to believe these promises, even though he knew the man was lying. Antiochus’s evil plans would not succeed.
When he tried to march on the city of Alexandria, Antiochus was defeated and had to return to his home base in Syria. He did so with some spoils of war but also with great frustration at not having achieved what he wanted in Egypt. On his way home, therefore, his heart was “set against the holy covenant,” the Holy Land and its inhabitants. Antiochus took time out to unleash an attack on the city and the people of Jerusalem. Some historians report that Antiochus killed 80,000 men, women, and children, besides taking 40,000 prisoners and selling as many into slavery. To show his spite for the religion of the Jews, he entered the temple, stole the gold and silver vessels, and sacrificed a pig on the altar. This was the first attack Antiochus led against Jerusalem. The following verses inform us there would be another.