Daniel 11:15,16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

So the king of the north shall come and take the most fenced cities It was in the absence of Antiochus that these advantages were obtained by the arms of Egypt; but his presence soon turned the scale, and changed the whole face of affairs: for being concerned to recover Judea, and the cities of Cœlosyria and Palestine, which Scopas had taken, he came again into those parts. Scopas was sent again to oppose him, but was defeated near the sources of Jordan, lost a great part of his army, and was pursued to Sidon, where he was shut up with ten thousand men, and closely besieged. Three famous generals were sent from Egypt to raise the siege; but they could not succeed, and at length Scopas was forced by famine to surrender, upon the hard conditions of having life only granted to him and his men; they were obliged to lay down their arms, and were sent away stripped and naked. Antiochus took also Gaza, and then all the other cities of that district, namely, Abila, Samaria, and Gadara; and afterward became master of the whole country. The arms of the south could not withstand him, neither his chosen people, neither Scopas nor the other great generals, nor the choicest troops who were sent against him; but he did according to his own will, and none was able to stand before him Among others the Jews also readily submitted to him, went forth in solemn procession to meet him, received him splendidly into their city, supplied him with plenty of provisions for all his army and elephants, and assisted him in besieging the garrison which Scopas had left in the citadel. Thus he stood in the glorious land And his power was established in Judea. Which by his hand shall be consumed This clause, thus rendered, may be considered as referring to Antiochus's maintaining his army with the provisions he drew from Judea, and thereby exhausting it; and to the distresses the country suffered, by the marching and counter-marching of hostile armies through it. Thus Josephus: “While Antiochus the Great was reigning in Asia, both the Jews and the inhabitants of Cœlosyria, by the laying waste of their countries, suffered many things. For when he carried on war against Ptolemy Philopater, and against his son, surnamed Epiphanes, it happened, that whether he was conqueror or conquered, they suffered alike: so that they were like a ship at sea in a storm, tossed by the waves on both sides; for whether Antiochus prospered, or met with a reverse, their sufferings were the same.” But then they could not be said to be consumed by the hand of Antiochus particularly; they were consumed as much, or more, by Scopas: and the Hebrew, כלה בידו, is capable of another interpretation; it may be translated, Which shall be perfected, or prosper, or flourish, in his hand; a sense which agrees as well with the truth of the text, and better with the truth of history. For Antiochus, to reward and encourage the Jews in their fidelity and obedience to him, gave orders that their city should be repaired, and the dispersed Jews should return and inhabit it; that they should be supplied with cattle and other provisions for sacrifices; that they should be furnished with timber and other materials for finishing and adorning the temple; that they should live all according to the laws of their country; that the priests and elders, the scribes and Levites, should be exempted from the capitation and other taxes; that those who then inhabited the city, or should return to it within a limited time, should be free from all tribute for three years, and that the third part of their tribute should be remitted to them for ever after; and also, that as many as had been taken and forced into servitude should be released, and their substance and goods be restored to them: see Bishop Newton.