What does Daniel 11:4 mean?
The angel speaking—probably Gabriel (Daniel 8:15–16; 9:21–22; 10:18–21; Luke 1:26)—has predicted that four rulers would come after Cyrus of Persia. The fourth would be amazingly wealthy and powerful and would initiate war against Greece. Later, another ruler would arise lacking any apparent limit to his power. The fourth king would be Xerxes, the Persian who invaded Greece. The later ruler would be Alexander the Great, who famously conquered an enormous territory in a brief time. Despite Alexander's success, he died in 323 BC without an established heir; his kingdom was eventually split four ways among his generals: Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy (Daniel 11:5).The angel describes the division of the empire as it being "plucked up," like a carcass worked over by vultures. History confirms this prediction, as well as prior prophecies given to Daniel. The speedy conquest and eventual four-way division of the empire were symbolized earlier using a winged leopard (Daniel 7:6) and the horns of a goat (Daniel 8:5, 8).
Daniel 11:2–20 provides a political timeline beginning with Darius the Mede (Daniel 5:30–31). The history—given as prophecy to the prophet Daniel around 536 BC (Daniel 10:1)—involves military conflicts between Greeks and Persians and between empires ruling from Syria and Egypt. These accounts are given to Daniel by an angel, probably Gabriel (Daniel 10:18–21). Parts of these prophecies are unusually straightforward, relying much less on symbolism and plainly indicating the events which will occur.
This chapter is most easily understood in terms of the historical events which it predicts. These include the conflicts between Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire up through the second century BC. This mentions the infamous Antiochus IV Epiphanes and what eventually became the Maccabean Revolt. The last portion of prophecy looks to the end times: blasphemous rulers, an invasion from the north, and a major defeat.
