NORTH AND SOUTH

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become strong, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven, and it shall not remain to his posterity, nor according to the greatness of the dominion over which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, and shall fall to others.

6

And the King of the South shall be strong, but one of his generals shall be stronger than he, and shall have dominion: his dominion shall be great.

And 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 establish a treaty, but the support shall not stand, . . . . and she shall be given up (?), and he who sent her and her child, and he who allied himself to her (?).

And a shoot from her roots shall arise in his place, and he shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the King of the North, and shall deal against them and shall prevail. And he shall carry captives into Egypt their gods and their molten images, and their precious vessels of silver and gold; and for many years he shall be mightier than the King of the North (?). And he shall come into the kingdom of the King of the South-but he shall return into his own land.

"And his sons shall stir up war, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and he shall advance, and sweep away and pass over; and again he shall return, and shall wage war even to his stronghold. And the King of the South shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with the King of the North, and he shall raise a great host, but it shall be given into his hand. And when it hath been swept away, his heart shall be lifted up, yet though he shall make thousands fall, he shall not shew himself strong.

"And the King of the North shall again raise a host, greater than the former one, and after some years he will come with a great army and much substance. And in those times many shall stand up against the King of the South and men of violence among thy people shall rise up to fulfil the vision, but they shall fall (??). And the King of the North shall come, and shall cast up earthworks, and take a fortified city, and the army of the south shall not withstand him, and his chosen troops shall have no

strength to resist. And he who shall come against him shall do as he willeth, and none shall withstand him, and he shall stand in the land of Glory, with destruction in his hand.

'And he shall set his face to advance with the power of his whole kingdom, but he shall make a treaty with him, and he shall give him his daughter in order to ruin (him), but it shall not avail or succeed. And he shall turn his face towards the coast-lands, and shall take many; but a Captain shall put an end to his insolence, yea even with insolence shall he repay him. And he shall turn his face toward the strongholds of his own lands, and shall be cast down and fall and not be found.

And there shall arise in his place one that shall cause an Exactor (of taxes) to pass through the Glory of the kingdom; and in a few days he shall be broken, not in wrath (?) or in battle.'

For the sake of convenience, I have counted up the nine separate paragraphs into which I have divided this part of the angelic apocalypse, and the numbers in brackets before the notes refer to the numbers of the paragraphs.

(§ 1) Three kings in Persia: and the fourth,' &c. We have seen that our author is very ill instructed in Persian history. Apparently he knew of only four kings, and placed them in this strange order: Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes, and Xerxes. The reference is to Xerxes' war against Greece, which the writer seems to regard as a 'kingdom' like Persia or Macedonia.

(§ 2) A mighty king': Alexander the Great and his suc

cessors.

(3) The King of the South'; 'one of his generals': i. e. Ptolemy I and Seleucus I (cp. chap. I, §§ 2 and 3).

(§ 4) And after some years they shall make an alliance,' &c. The author jumps on to the marriage of Ptolemy Philadelphus' daughter Berenice with Antiochus II. The end of the paragraph is obscure and corrupt, but it refers to the murder of Antiochus and of Berenice and her infant child, and to the death of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (cp. chap. I, § 4).

(§ 5) And a shoot,' &c.: i. e. Berenice's brother Ptolemy III Euergêtês. The reference is to Euergêtês' successful campaign against Syria at the opening of his reign.

'And he shall come': i. e. Seleucus II's unsuccessful countercampaign against Egypt (cp. chap. I, § 5).

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(§ 6) And his sons shall stir up war': i. e. Seleucus III, and Antiochus III the Great (222-187 B c.). The 'he's' and 'his's' in this paragraph are very confusing, sometimes referring to Antiochus and sometimes to Ptolemy. Even to his (Ptolemy's) stronghold'. i. e. Antiochus' successful campaigns of 219 and 218 B. C. against Coele-Syria. He advances up to Raphia, Ptolemy's stronghold. He (Antiochus) shall raise a great host, but it shall be given into his (Ptolemy's) hand': i. e. the battle of Raphia, 217 B. C. He shall not shew himself strong': i. e. Ptolemy III's unexpected peace with Antiochus III (cp. chap. I, § 5).

(§ 7) And after some years': i. e. the final campaigns of Antiochus III against Coele-Syria, ending in the battle of Panion, and the permanent occupation of Coele-Syria and Palestine by the Seleucids (198 B. C.).

'Men of violence among thy people': a very obscure allusion. Does it refer to the Jews who took part with Antiochus against the Ptolemies? Did they hope thereby to gain their independence and fulfil the prophecies ?

'A fortified city,' &c.: the capture of Gaza or Sidon, and the battle of Panion.

"The land of Glory': Antiochus occupies Palestine, and captures Jerusalem (cp. chap. I, § 6).

(§ 8) He shall make a treaty with him': i. e. Antiochus makes peace with Egypt. He gives his daughter Cleopatra in marriage to Ptolemy IV. His ulterior designs against Egypt are interrupted and prevented by Rome. 'He shall turn his face towards the coast-lands, and shall take many; but a captain shall put an end,' &c. i. e. Antiochus' campaigns, successful at first, in Asia Minor, ended in his crushing defeat at Magnesia by the Romans in 190 B. C. The 'captain' is Lucius Scipio.

'He shall turn his face,' &c.: the obscure death of Antiochus in his attempted plunder of the treasures of a temple of Bel in Elymais (cp. chap. I, § 7).

(89) One that shall cause an Exactor': usually interpreted of the mission of Heliodorus to Jerusalem to plunder the temple's treasures.

And in a few days,' &c.: a conspiracy was formed against Seleucus IV, and as a speedy result of it, he was murdered (175 B. C.).

To understand this portion of the apocalypse the reader is strongly recommended to look up the references to the first chapter of this section (§§ 2-7, pp. 656-659).

§ 19. The angel's apocalypse: the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.The Vision now tells the story of Antiochus Epiphanes and his

Jewish persecutions. I will quote it without a break up to the forecast of the king's death.

'And there shall arise in his place a contemptible man, to whom the honour of the kingdom had not been appointed, but he shall come in unawares, and shall seize the kingdom by guile. And armies shall be utterly overwhelmed before him, and shall be broken, and likewise a Prince of the Covenant. And after a league hath been made with him, he shall practise deceit, and he shall take the field with a small force and prevail. And by stealth he shall enter into the farthest places of the province (?), and do what his fathers did not do, nor his fathers' fathers; spoil and plunder and riches shall he scatter among them, and against fortresses shall he devise his plans, but (it shall be only) for a time.

'And he shall rouse up his power and his courage against the King of the South with a great army, and the King of the South shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, but he shall not stand; for they will devise plots against him. Yea, those who eat of his dainties shall ruin him, and his army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. And the hearts of both these two kings shall be bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper; for the End awaiteth the appointed time. And he shall return to his own land with great substance, and his heart shall be set against the Holy Covenant, and he shall work his will, and return to his own land.

'At the time appointed he shall return, but it shall not be in the latter time as in the former time. For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be cowed; and he shall return and vent his wrath against the Holy Covenant, and work his will; and he shall return (to his own land), and have regard unto them that forsake the Holy Covenant.

'And an army from him shall stand and pollute the sanctuary, even the stronghold, and abolish the daily sacrifice, and set up the Horrible Abomination. And they who sin against the Covenant shall he make apostates by guile, but they who know their God will be strong and do valiantly. And they that are wise among the people shall instruct many; but for a time they shall fall by the sword

ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES

and by fire, by captivity and by spoil.

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And when they

fall, they shall be helped with a little help, and many shall cleave to them deceitfully. And some of them that are wise shall fall, in order to purge them and cleanse them and make them white, until the time of the End, for it waiteth till the appointed time.

'And the king shall do according to his will, and shall exalt himself and magnify himself against every god, and shall speak monstrous things against the God of gods, and he shall prosper till the wrath is past, for what hath been decreed must be accomplished. Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor shall he have regard to any god, but he shall magnify himself above all. But in their place he shall honour the god of fortresses, and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold and silver and precious stones and costly things. And he shall garrison (?) the fortresses with people of a strange god; whom he favoureth, he giveth great honour, and maketh them to rule over many, and divideth the land for gain.'

(§ 1) The allusions in this first paragraph about Antiochus Epiphanes are obscure. Many scholars regard the paragraph as a general summing up of his wars and dealings with Egypt. Professor Bevan interprets it as 'describing events which took place in Syria during the first five years of his reign,' and before the first Egyptian campaign.

Who is the 'Prince of the Covenant'? It is doubtful. Most commentators refer to Onias III.

(§ 2) The allusions become clearer. This paragraph describes the first Egyptian campaign, 170 B. C. (cp. chap. I, § 11), together with Antiochus' capture of and alliance with Ptolemy VII Philometor.

'His heart shall be set against the Holy Covenant.' For the doings of Antiochus in Jerusalem after his first Egyptian campaign, compare chapter I, § 12.

(83) The second campaign of 168 B. C.

'Ships of Kittim': i. e. the Roman ambassadors. 'Kittim' means literally the inhabitants of Cyprus, but among the later Jews it was used for all the western maritime countries.' Thus we have here a clear reference to the embassy of Popilius Laenas (chap. I, § 13). The fiercer persecution of all observant Jews now began (chap. I, § 14).