And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full. This does not hold good of the times of Antiochus, but of the closing times of the Christian era. Compare Luke 18:8 as to the wickedness of the world in general, just before Christ's second coming; also 2 Timothy 3:1-9. Israel's guilt, too, shall then be at the full, when they who rejected, Christ shall receive Antichrist; fulfilling Jesus' words, John 5:43, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not; if another, shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (cf. Genesis 15:16, "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full;" Matthew 23:32, "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers;" 1 Thessalonians 2:16, "Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway").
A king of fierce countenance ... shall stand up - (Deuteronomy 28:50) one who will spare neither old nor young.
And understanding dark sentences - rather, artifices (Gesenius). Antiochus made himself master of Egypt and Jerusalem successively by craft (1Ma 1:30 , 'The king sent his chief collector of tribute, who came unto Jerusalem with a great multitude, and spake peaceable words unto them; but all was deceit: for when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it very sore, and destroyed much people of Israel,' etc.; 2Ma 5:24 , 'Antiochus sent also that detestable ringleader, Apollonius, with an army of two and twenty thousand, commanding him to slay all those that were in their best age, and to sell the women and the younger sort; who, coming to Jerusalem, and pretending peace, did forbear until the holy day of the Sabbath, when, taking the Jews keeping holyday, he commanded his men to arm themselves, and so he slew all them that were gone to the celebrating of the Sabbath,' etc.)