Daniel 11:7
But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail:
But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate,.... Or, "out of a branch of her roots a shoot thereof shall stand or rise up" {x}; by "her roots" are meant her ancestors, particularly Ptolemy Lagus; by "a branch" from thence, Ptolemy Philadelphus her father; and by the "shoot" out of that, or its plantation, as the Vulgate Latin version, is designed her brother, Ptolemy Euergetes; who succeeded her father in the kingdom, and stood firm in it; "upon his basis" {y}, as some render it:
which shall come with an army; or, "to an army" {z} as soon as he heard of his sister's case, he put himself at the head of an army, and marched to her relief; but coming too late, he, and the forces of the lesser Asia, which came for the same purpose, joining him, resolved to revenge the death of his sister and her son, went with his army into Syria, as next foretold:
and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north; the king of Syria, Seleucus Callinicus: Ptolemy entered into Syria itself, as Polybius {a} says, into the fortified cities of it, and took them, the singular being put for the plural; unless Seleucia itself is particularly designed, which Ptolemy seized, and put a garrison of Egyptians in it, which held it twenty seven years {b}:
and shall deal against them; besiege and take them at his pleasure; the king of Syria not being able to stand against him and defend them:
and shall prevail; over the king of Syria, and conquer great part of his dominions, as he did: he took Syria and Cilicia, and the superior parts beyond Euphrates, and almost all Asia, as Jerome relates; and had it not been for a sedition in his own kingdom, which called him home, he had made himself master of the whole kingdom of Seleucus, as Justin {c} says.
{x} wnk "plantatio ejus", V. L.
{y} "Super basi sua", Pagninus, Gejerus.
{z} lyxh la "ad exercitum", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Michaelis.
{a} Hist. l. 5.
{b} See Prideaux, Connexion, part 2. B. 2. p. 100.
{c} Ut supra. (Justin, l. 27. c. 1.)