And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.
There shall stand up yet three kings in Persia - Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes. (Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, and Darius, in Ezra 4:6-7; Ezra 4:24.) The Ahasuerus of Esther (see note, Daniel 9:1) is identified with Xerxes, both in Greek history and in Scripture, appearing proud, self-willed, careless of contravening Persian customs, amorous, facile, and changeable (Daniel 11:2). Ahasuerus was a name common to many of the kings of Medo-Persia.
And the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia - Xerxes, whose riches was proverbial. Persia reached its climax and showed its greatest power in his invasion of Greece, 480 BC After his overthrow at Salamis, Persia is viewed as politically dead, though it had an existence. Therefore, the third verse, without noticing Xerxes' successors, proceeds at once to Alexander, under whom, first, the third world-kingdom, Grecia, reached its culmination, and assumed an importance as to the people of God.
Stir up all - four years were spent in gathering his army out of all parts of his vast empire, amounting to 2,600,041 men (Prideaux, 'Connexion,' 1: 4, 1: 410).