Chapters 11 and 12

“For I shall gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.” Zechariah 14:2

 

I.     Daniel 11:2-4

      A. (Vs 2) Cambyses (son of Cyrus the Great), Smerdis (a pretender) and Darius the Great are the next three kings of Persia. The fourth is Xerxes, son of Darius, and we see him in Esther.

      B. (Vs 3) Alexander the Great is the mighty king who comes 135 years after Xerxes.

      C. (Vs 4) See Daniel 8:8, 21-22

          1. Ptolemy I Soter – Egypt    Cleopatra was the last and most famous

          2. Seleucus I Nicator – Syria   Antiochus IV Epiphanes was the most notorius

          3. Antipater (through his son Cassander) – Macedonia

          4. Lysimachus – Thracia

II.     Daniel 11:5-20

      A. (Vs 5) This is Ptolemy I (king of the south) and a former general of his, Seleucus I (who will be the king of the north).

      B. (Vs 6-13) For over 100 years, the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria fought back and forth with Jerusalem right in the middle of all of it.

      C. (Vs 14) The Jews eventually sided with the Seleucids against the Ptolemies but this action was to fail them because it brought about the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes.

      D. (Vs 15) The Seleucids take the city of Sidon from the Ptolemy general Scopas.

      E. (Vs 16-17) The Seleucids have taken control of Palestine and begin to move westward.

      F. (Vs 18) The Romans enter on the scene in 191 BC in Thermopylae (Acilius Glabrio) and 190 BC in Magnesium (Cornelius Scipio) defeated the Seleucid king Antiochus III.

      G. (Vs 19) Antiochus III dies in his own country

      H. (Vs 20) Seleucus IV becomes king, collects taxes and is assassinated by the tax collector.

III.    Daniel 11:21-35

      The events of Antiochus IV Epiphanes including the profaning of the Jewish Temple.

IV.    Daniel 11:36-45

      The events of the kings of the Roman empire up until 70 AD and the destruction of the Jewish Temple and the Jerusalem.

V.     Daniel 12

      The end of the Jewish nation as the kingdom of God and the rest for Daniel at the end of the days.