Daniel 11.2-The Prophecy of Four Persian Rulers
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 27, 2014
Daniel: Daniel 11:2-The Prophecy of Four Persian Rulers
Lesson # 319
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 11:2.
Daniel 11:2 “And now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them; as soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece.” (NASB95)
“And now I will tell you the truth” stresses the urgency of the moment in that it was imperative that this angel fulfill the task God sent him to Daniel to perform, namely communicate to Daniel revelation regarding God’s prophetic program for the nation of Israel during the Times of the Gentiles as well as after it.
This statement refers to this unidentified elect angel communicating to Daniel divine revelation and specifically revelation concerning God’s prophetic plan for Israel during and after the Times of the Gentiles.
The prophecy recorded in Daniel 11:2-12:13 is truth in the sense that it is revelation from God regarding His prophetic program for the nation of Israel during the Times of the Gentiles and after it.
“Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia” emphasizes with the reader immediacy in the sense that these three kings who will come to power immediately after Cyrus the Persian.
The elect angel is telling Daniel three future kings will come to power immediately after Cyrus the Persian.
“Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them” refers to a fourth Persian ruler who will emerge after the three before him and will be distinguished from his three predecessors in that he will gain far more riches than these three.
It indicates that the fourth Persian ruler will distinguish himself from his three predecessors by being wealthier than these three.
“As soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece” presents a contrast between Persia being at peace with Greece with that of being at war with this nation.
This fourth king will amass power by means of his great wealth and when this fourth king amasses power through his wealth, his entire kingdom will stir up hostilities with Greece.
“He will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece” is composed of the verb ʿûr (עוּר) (oor), “he will arouse” which is followed by the definite article hǎ- (הַ־), “the” and then we have the noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), “whole” which is followed by the object marker ʾēṯ (אֵת) (ayth), which is not translated and followed by the noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ (מַלְכוּת) (mal-kooth), “the realm of” which is modified by the proper name yā·wān (יָוָן) (yaw-vawn´), “Greece.”
The verb ʿûr is in the hiphil stem and means “to arouse, to stir up” in the sense of the Persian Empire stirring up trouble with the kingdom of Greece which was at peace with Persia by prior to this fourth king’s ascension to power.
The word speaks of upsetting a peaceful situation between Persia and Greece and provoking war between the two nations and speaks of stirring up hostilities between these two nations.
The hiphil stem of the verb is factitive meaning that the subject of this verb causes its direct object to enter the state described by the same verb in the qal.
The subject of this verb is the Persian Empire and its direct object is the kingdom of Greece which is signified by the object marker ʾēṯ, which is prefixed to it.
Therefore, this stem denotes that the Persian Empire will cause the kingdom of Greece to enter the state of being stirred up.
The noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ means “kingdom” and the object marker ʾēṯ is marking this word as the direct object of the verb ʿûr meaning that this noun is receiving the action of this verb.
Most English translations overlook this since they interpret this fourth Persian king as stirring up hostility among the constituent elements in his own nation against Greece.
They interpret the articular form of the noun kol as the direct object of this verb indicating that this fourth king is stirring up the constituent elements in his own kingdom against Greece.
However, the object marker throughout the book of Daniel is always used to mark a word as the direct object of a verb.
Thus, this interpretation adopted by many English translations does not fit the rules of Hebrew grammar or the usage of the object marker throughout the book of Daniel.
If we use the object marker in its customary manner and have the articular kol as the subject of the verb ʿûr, the rendering of the passage say that the entire Persian empire will cause the kingdom of Greece to be stirred up.
Daniel 11:2 “Now, at this present time, I must reveal to you the truth. Behold, three future kings will ascend to power for Persia. Then, the fourth will cause greater riches to make him wealthier than each and every one of these in comparison. However, when he amasses power through his wealth, the entire nation will stir up the Greek kingdom.” (My translation)
The unidentified elect angel begins to communicate to Daniel revelation of God’s prophetic program for the nation of Israel during the Times of the Gentiles.
He begins by issuing a prophecy regarding the Persian Empire, which in 536 B.C. was a world-wide empire.
Cyrus the Persian was the ruler of the Medo-Persian Empire at that time.
Persian became more dominant than the kingdom of Media, thus the angel does not mention Media.
This Persian dominance is predicted in the prophecies found in Daniel chapter seven and eight.
The angel informs Daniel that there will be three kings who will ascend to power immediately after the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
These three will be followed immediately by a fourth who will distinguish himself from these three by accumulating more wealth than his predecessors.
However, when this fourth king amasses power through his wealth, the entire Persian Empire will stir up hostilities with the Greeks.
This prophecy of these four Persian rulers was fulfilled in history, which records the first as being Cambyses, who was the son of Cyrus the Persian, who reigned from 530-522 B.C.
He was followed by Pseudo-Smerdis, who only reigned for a short period of time in 522 B.C.
Darius I Hystaspes who ruled from 522-486 B.C. followed Pseudo-Smerdis.
The fourth ruler was Xerxes, he was known in the book of Esther as Ahasuerus and he reigned over Persia from 485-465 B.C.
He was more powerful than his three predecessors and the most influential and wealthy of the four, thus fulfilling the prophecy found in Daniel 11:2.
During the reign of Xerxes, he fought wars against Greece which also served to fulfill this prophecy here in Daniel 11:2.
Xerxes spent a period of over four years gathering an army of two and a half million men from forty nations and sent out to conquer Greece.
In 480 B.C., his fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Salamis.
A year later his army was defeated at Platea.
He so angered the Greeks that they developed a passionate desire to crush the Persian Empire, which they did under Alexander the Great.
The defeat of Xerxes at Salamis and Platea was for all intents and purposes the end of Persia as a world-wide empire.
The line of kings continued after Xerxes which ended with Darius III Codomanus who was defeated by Alexander at Issus in 333. B.C.
The angel does not mention the other kings after Xerxes since Persia ceased to be a world-wide empire during Xerxes reign.
This revelation that Daniel received from the angel about the future of Persia would make clear to his fellow Jewish countrymen and to the Jews in the future, that Israel would be subject to the Persians for quite some time.
It would make clear to Israel that this was God’s sovereign will for the nation.
The prophecy recorded in Daniel 11:2 corresponds to the prophecy which appears in Daniel 8:1-4, which predicts the emergence of Persia as a world-wide empire.
The Persian Empire was represented by the silver arms and chest on the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
It is represented by the second beast in Daniel chapter seven.
It is represented by the two-horned ram in Daniel 8 which had one horn longer than the other.