Commentary on Daniel Chapters 1-12 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
and Antiochus for rejecting his wife, and marrying another who was not a real wife, but only a concubine. And, perhaps, God wished to use the lips of his angel to point out the tendency of all royal treaties. They always have the most specious appearances — national, quiet public peace, and similar objects which can be dexterously made prominent. For kings always court favor and praise for themselves from the foolish vulgar, whenever they make treaties of peace. Thus all these alliances have no other tendency than to produce social deception, and at length they degenerate into mutual perfidy, when one party plots insidiously and wickedly against another.
The angel adds next, He shall not stand; using the masculine gender, and most probably referring to Antiochus, as well as to Ptolemy his father-inlaw. Neither he nor his seed shall stand, meaning his son by Bernice the daughter of Ptolemy. I dare not translate it "arm," because in my opinion the letter {,}וvau, is needed in the word for "arm;" so I take it to denote "seed." He afterwards adds, And she shall be delivered up — thus returning to Berenice — either by treachery or to death; and those who led her forth — meaning her companions. Whenever any incestuous marriage is contracted, some persons of disgraceful character are sure to be concerned in bringing his new wife to the king. And very probably there were factions in the palace of Antiochus; one party being more attached to Seleucus and his brother, and his mother Laodice; while others desired a change of government, according to the usual state of affairs. The advisers of the marriage between Antiochus and Bernice were sent as a guard of honor to attend them to Syria, and the angel states all these to have been delivered up together with the queen. He afterwards adds, And those who were her parents From the absence of a grammatical point under the letter {,}הhe, many think the noun to be of the feminine gender. And as it may mean mother, they treat it as if her nurse was intended, but I leave the question in doubt. He now adds, and those who strengthened her at those times He, doubtless, intends to designate all those who wished to curry favor with the king, and thus took part in this marriage between him and the daughter of the king of Egypt. The whole of that faction perished, when Berenice was slain by Seleucus Callinicus. If, then, he did not spare his stepmother, much less would he spare the faction by which he was deprived of his hope of the kingdom, and through whom his mother Laodice had suffered the disgrace of a divorce. It now follows, —
Daniel 11:7 7. But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which 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:
7. Et stabit ex germine, vel, surculo, radicum ejus, nempe Berenice, 474 in gradu suo, 475 et veniet cum exercitu, 476 et veniet in munitionem regis
474The relative article is in the feminine gender. — Calvin. 475Some translate, "in its degree;" but I see no reason for it. — Calvin. 476{{אלal, is here used in the sense of ``with;'' yet some translate it literally, to his army; but the former exposition is preferable. --- Calvin.