Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.
Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help. The liberty obtained by the Maccabean heroes for the Jews was but of short duration. They soon fell under the Romans and Herodians, and ever since every attempt to free them from Gentile rule has only aggravated their sad lot. The period of the world-times (Gentile rule) is the period of depression of the theocracy, extending from the exile to the millennium. (Roos.) The more immediate reference seems to be, the forces of Mattathias and his five sons were originally few, (1Ma 2:1-70 .)
But many shall cleave to them - as was the case under Judas Maccabeus, who was thus able successfully to resist Antiochus.
With flatteries. Those who had deserted the Jewish cause in persecution, now, when success attended the Jewish arms, joined: the Maccabean standard-e.g., Joseph son of Zacharias, Azarias:, etc. (1Ma 5:55-57 , 'Also those men in Judas' company upon whose bodies, when slain, were found things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites;' 2Ma 12:40 , 'Also Rhodocus, in the Jews' host, who betrayed their secrets to the enemies;' 2Ma 13:21). Maurer explains it of those who, through fear of the Maccabees' severity against apostates, joined them, though ready, if it suited their purpose, to desert them (1Ma 2:44 ; 1Ma 3:58).