Daniel 11

In Short

Daniel 11 shows details concerning earlier prophecies, in Daniel 8 and Daniel 9. It shows how the cooperation of 'the king with the fierce countenance' of Daniel 8 with the empire will lead to the outbreak of a great war in the Middle East. It shows how the 'overspreading of abominations' of Daniel 9:27 will culminate in a extremely provoking affront to the Muslim world, bringing the wrath of both Egypt and Iran in full force upon the state of Israel. This, in turn, will lead to the destruction of Iran.

Two Greek Kingdoms

The prophecy of Daniel 11 starts with the last rulers of the Persian empire. Then it steps over to the Greek empire (vs.2), Alexander the Great, passing away and leaving his empire to four of his generals (vs.3,4). During a few centuries, two of the kingdoms of Greece are in a constant struggle for control in the region with Israel in their midst - The Seleucid king of the North and the Egypt king of the South. The moment came that the Seleucid king of the North, by the name of Antioch Epiphanes, was held beck in his campaign toward Egypt by 'the ships of Chittim', the naval fleet of the Roman empire. This angered him greatly and this anger was unleashed upon the traditional and faithful Jews, that opposed the Hellenization of their country. Many of them were killed. Then the desecration of the temple started with the offering of pigs upon the altar an the erecting of a statue of Zeus in the courtyard. The way this is expressed in Daniel 11 is: ' And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.' All of this happened in the year 167 BC. The question is, what was the desolation that was caused by this abomination. It cannot be the massacres of traditional and faithful Jews that opposed the Greek culture overtaking their country, 'a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants' - 40.000 people in the space of 3 days. For that had already happened before the desecration of the temple. Would it be the death of Antioch Epiphanes in 164, around the time of the reconsecration of the temple after 3 years? We think 'desolation' goes much further than the death of a foreign king, however wicked this king might have been. We think that the desolation, that will follow the 3 year long abomination, is still future. This is also confirmed by Daniel 8. According to the explanation, given by the angel in the second half of Daniel 8, this prophecy concerns the Endtime. And it has to, because the 2300 evenings or days of temple defilement have not been made full. The Greek idolatry in the temple only lasted 3 years, 1,080 days. That still leaves 2.300 - 1,080 = 1,220 days of idolatry yet to be fulfilled.

Therefore it is at the Endtime 1,220 days of idolatry that the desolation will come upon the country of Israel. The ruler of Israel in those days is minutely described in the last verses of Daniel 8, words that exactly match the character and the acts of the man called 'Netanyahu'.

It is the last verse of Daniel 9 that describes the other player of the Endtime, that will cause total desolation to come, the US-president. He is seen as the ultimate heir of the old Roman empire, the people 'of a prince that would come, that destroyed the temple and the city in 70 AD (Daniel 9:26). This 'prince' would make 'the covenant heavy for many for one week', the last of the 70 weeks that are central in Daniel 9, which - according to us - started on 2022-12-29,