After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause [it] to turn upon him.
Ver. 18. After this he shall turn his face unto the isles.] Missing of his design for Egypt, and losing also much in Asia Minor, which Epiphanes got of him by means of his Queen Cleopatra, Antiochus, as an enraged lion, falleth upon foreign countries, as Hellespont, Chersonesus, Euboea, Rhodes, Cyprus, Samos, Colophon, &c. He marcheth also with his army into Greece, being stirred up thereunto by Hannibal, who, being vanquished in Africa by Scipio, had fled to Antiochus into Asia, and there hatched what mischief he could against the Romans.
But a prince for his own behalf,] i.e., Scipio, the Roman consul; or, as some will, Marcus Acilius, their general.
Shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease,] i.e., Shall recover the countries that he had taken from the Roman State, and shall also drive back again, down his throat, those contumelies and opprobious speeches that he had thrown out against the Romans; who afterwards overcame him thrice by sea and land, forced him to accept very hard conditions, shred him of a great part of his kingdom, and called him, in contempt, Antiochus, sometime the Great. a
a Liv., dec. 4, lib. xviii., Appian. in Syriac.