[662] _Daniel_, p. 162.
[663] On this chapter see Smend, _Zeitschr. für Alttest. Wissenschaft_, v. 241.
[664] Ewald, _Prophets_, v. 293 (E. Tr.).
[665] Doubtless the three mentioned in Ezra iv. 5-7: Ahasuerus (Xerxes), Artaxerxes, and Darius.
[666] Heb., _Hakkôl_--lit. "the all." There were probably Jews in his army (_Jos. c. Ap._, I. 22: comp. Herod., vii. 89).
[667] Zöckler met the difficulty by calling the number four "symbolic," a method as easy as it is profoundly unsatisfactory.
[668] Herod., iii. 96, iv. 27-29.
[669] Q. Curt., X. v. 35.
[670] See Grote, xii. 133. Alexander had a natural son, Herakles, and a posthumous son, Alexander, by Roxana. Both were murdered--the former by Polysperchon. See Diod. Sic., xix. 105, xx. 28; Pausan., ix. 7; Justin, xv. 2; Appian, _Syr._, c. 51.
[671] The King of the Negeb (comp. Isa. xxx. 6, 7). LXX., Egypt. Ptolemy assumed the crown about B.C. 304.
[672] See Stade, _Gesch._, ii. 276. Seleucus Nicator was deemed so important as to give his name to the Seleucid æra (1 Macc. i. 10, ἔτη βασιλείας Ἑλλήνων).
[673] Diod. Sic., xix. 55-58; Appian, _Syr._, c. 52. He ruled from Phrygia to the Indus, and was the most powerful of the Diadochi. The word _one_ is not expressed in the Hebrew: "but as for _one_ of his captains." There may be some corruption of the text. Seleucus can scarcely be regarded as a vassal of Ptolemy, but of Alexander.
[674] Appian, _Syr._, c. 55; Polyænus, viii. 50; Justin, xxvii. 1. See Herzberg, _Gesch. v. Hellas u. Rom._, i. 576. Dates are not certain.
[675] Jer., _ad loc._ (Dan. xi. 6).
[676] The rendering is much disputed, and some versions, punctuating differently, have, "his seed [_i.e._, his daughter] shall not stand." Every clause of the passage has received varying interpretations.
[677] Polyb., v. 58.
[678] Heb., _nasîkîm_; LXX., τὰ χωνευτά; Vulg., _sculptilia_.
[679] Herodotus (iii. 47) says that he ordered the images to be burnt. On the Marmor Adulitanum, Ptolemy Euergetes boasted that he had united Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Persia, Susiana, Media, and all countries as far as Bactria under his rule. The inscription was seen at Adules by Cosmas Indicopleustes, and recorded by him (Wolf u. Buttmann, _Museum_, ii. 162).
[680] R.V. marg., "He shall continue more years than the King of the North." Ptolemy Euergetes died B.C. 247; Seleucus Kallinikos, B.C. 225. It must be borne in mind that in almost every clause the readings, renderings, and interpolations vary. I give what seem to be the best attested and the most probable.
[681] Justin, xxvii. 2.
[682] See 3 Macc. i. 2-8; Jos., _B. J._, IV. xi. 5. The Seleucid army lost ten thousand foot, three hundred horse, five elephants, and more than four thousand prisoners (Polyb., v. 86).
[683] Justin says (xxx. i): "Spoliasset regem Antiochum si fortunam virtute juvisset."
[684] _Chāzôn_, "the vision." Grätz renders it, "to cause the Law to totter"; but this cannot be right.
[685] _E.g._, Joseph, and his son Hyrcanus.
[686] Polyb., xxviii. 1; Liv., xxxiii. 19; Jos., _Antt._, XII. iii. 4. See St. Jerome, _ad loc._
[687] Vulg., _terra inclyta_; but in viii. 9, _fortitudo_.
[688] In the choice of the Hebrew words _qatsîn cher'patho lo_, Dr. Joël suspects a sort of anagram of Cornelius Scipio, like the ἀπὸ μέλιτος for Ptolemy, and the ἵον Ἥρας for Arsione in Lycophron; but the real meaning and rendering of the verse are highly uncertain.
[689] Liv., xii. 19: "Otiosum, nullisque admodum rebus gestis nobilitatum."
[690] 2 Macc. iii. 7 ff. The reading and rendering are very uncertain.
[691] Joël, _Notizen_, p. 16.
[692] See Jost, i. 110.
[693] Vulg., _vilissimus et indignus decore regio_; R.V., "to whom they had not given the honour of a kingdom"; Ewald, "upon him shall not be set the splendour of a kingdom." Dr. Joël sees in _nibzeh_ a contemptuous paronomasia on "Epiphanes" (_Notizen_, p. 17).