God’s Word for You

Daniel 11:5-6 The kings of the South and North

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, January 7, 2026

5 “Then the king of the South will grow strong, but one of his princes shall grow stronger than him and will rule a kingdom greater than his own. 6 After some years, they will make an alliance. The daughter of the king of the South will come to the king of the North to make an agreement. But she will not retain her power, and he and his power will not endure. She will be given up, she and her attendants and the one who fathered her and the one who supported her in those times.

Let’s identify the people in these verses. The king of the South, throughout this chapter, is always a king of Egypt, but the chapter covers a hundred and fifty years of time (320-150 BC). All of the male descendants of Ptolemy were also named Ptolemy, and we number them Ptolemy I - Ptolemy VI).

The king of the North is Seleucus (Se-LUKE-us) and his descendants. After him came Antiochus I, Antiochus II, Seleucus II, Seleucus III, Seleucus IV, and then Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes).

I am not certain about the man called “one of his princes” here. If, as one historian observed, he is being described “from the Egyptian point of view,” then he could be Ptolemy I. But he could also be the older son of Ptolemy I, who was named Ptolemy Ceraunus (“Thunderbolt”). When he was passed over for the throne in favor of his younger brother (Ptolemy II), he fled to Greece to King Lysimachus. He got involved in palace intrigues there and was partly responsible for the fall of Macedonia to Seleucus I, but then Ceraunus the Thunderbolt assassinated Seleucus and claimed the rule of Macedonia and Thrace (northern Greece) for himself, where he ruled until being killed in battle against the Gauls in 279 BC. The “alliance” in the first sentence of verse 6 might be a reference to the alliance between Ceraunus and Pyrrhus (the ruler of western Macedonia) who then made war on the Roman Republic.

The “daughter of the king of the South” would be Ptolemy II’s daughter Bernice, who was offered to the Seleucid king Antiochus II, who set aside his wife Laodicea in favor of making this alliance. But when Ptolemy II died two years later, Antiochus abandoned Bernice and took back his first wife Laodicea. But Laodicea was not happy about any of this, and had her husband murdered. She also killed Bernice’s son and then Bernice herself. The death of the son (the infant Antiochus III) is surely the meaning of “she will not retain her power,” and the subsequent execution of Laodicea and the fall of Antiochus explains the rest of the verse. The father, “the one that fathered her (that is, who fathered Bernice),” is said by Leupold to be a reference to her father dying “of shock at Bernice’s fate.” “The net result,” concludes our Professor Jeske, “was that the father who planned the political marriage was dead, as was his daughter, her husband, and their children.”

Are we sure about this interpretation of the Angel’s words? Could this be a prophecy about some other events, or even of modern times? First of all, these things are a prophecy about the years just prior to the coming of Jesus Christ, and therefore the chronology is correct. Second, the imagery matches what we have already seen in Daniel, since the coming and going of Persia and then Alexander in the first four verses matches the details of the prophecies about the coming kingdoms earlier in the book (the silver and bronze parts of the statue, 2:39), as well as the ram and the goat with big horn, 8:5-6). And thirdly, verse 8 of this chapter will identify the South kingdom as Egypt.

Finally and most importantly, there are three prophecies in Daniel about the wicked one who would set up the abomination that causes desolation in the temple, and Jesus quotes this as a warning to his apostles (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14). Paul teaches us: “Do not treat prophecies with contempt” (1 Thessalonians 5:20). They are given to the people of God for a reason. First, they convey a truthful message for our good, to assure us that the Almighty God is the one who guides and moves history to bring about his plan to rescue us from our sins. They are also given to comfort us when difficult times come, so that we can say to one another, “Remember that God said, ‘See, I have told you ahead of time’” (Matthew 24:25). And when a scoffer, a skeptic, an unbeliever wonders about such prophecies, we know that God uses these things to harden their hearts, “so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding” (Mark 4:12).

What is the lesson of law and gospel that we learn here? As with so much of the book of Daniel we have a lesson here about the Fourth Commandment, and also about the Ninth, Fifth, Sixth, and Tenth. What a bouquet of poisonous flowers this is, run through with thorns and wound all about with nettles! It reeks of death.

The Fourth Commandment: These kings of South and North governed apart from God and according to their own aspirations and desires. Alexander had won these kingdoms and territories; they had been nothing but his officers who obeyed his orders. Now they tried to impose their own will, and even though they contended over the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, they did not benefit from the word of God preached there. And besides this, they clearly and simply “dishonored and angered those in authority.”

The Ninth Commandment: These kings coveted the inheritance, the property of one another. This is such a literal offense against the commandment that no other explanation is necessary. For “we must not scheme to get our neighbor’s property,” and that is exactly what they did.

The Fifth Commandment: We often apply this commandment to hateful speech and harmful ideas, but they plotted and carried out murder, even the wicked sin of murdering an infant, which the old radio personality Paul Harvey used to describe with somber words as “abortion after the fact.” In what worse way could anyone “hurt or harm their neighbor in his body”?

The Sixth Commandment: The callous way that these kings treated marriage as a means for mere political power is disgusting enough. In our time, marriage is treated with wretched disrespect, how seldom is it thought of as seeking a faithful partner for a life of faith, but only as a means of fulfilling desires, such as those girls “who married young and then retired”? “Husband and wife must love and honor each other.”

The Tenth Commandment: The manipulating king and princess of our text covet a marriage for the sake of a larger throne, a wealthier kingdom, or simply a secure position for a baby who might not be suited to rule at all; but “we should fear and love God that we do not force or entice away our neighbor’s spouse.”

The Lord loves us and teaches us even through the cesspools of history that we, with all mankind, are sinful people who need a Savior. The God who forgives such vile sins has forgiven all of our sins as well—all on the same cross, on that little hill outside the city walls on that Friday afternoon. He bled to pay the price of our sins, and he rose to conquer the grave, for he will bring us to life and raise us up from the grave in the end. How can we do anything but love him and thank him?

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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