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Prophecy

The king of the South, the daughter given to the king of the North and her brother’s revenge (Daniel 11:5-9)

Coin of Ptolemy III Euergetes (reigned 246-222 BC), brother of Berenice, who invaded the Seleucid kingdom in 246.
Archaeological object Coin of Ptolemy III Euergetes (reigned 246-222 BC), brother of Berenice, who invaded the Seleucid kingdom in 246. — Classical Numismatic Group, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

○ Written after the events, according to historians; tradition dates it before

Written c. 536 BC according to tradition; c. 167–164 BC according to historians. Event: 246–241 BC.

See the full entry: sources, objections, answers

In short

The announcement. The book of Daniel, in a vision dated around 536 BC (around 167–164 BC according to scholars), announces that a king of the South will give his daughter to the king of the North, that she will be handed over to death, and that her brother will come to avenge her.

What happened. The Seleucid king Antiochus II marries Berenice, daughter of the Egyptian king Ptolemy II, then returns to his first wife. At his death, in 246 BC, Berenice and her young son are killed. Her brother Ptolemy III then invades the kingdom as far as Babylon, as a tablet from the time confirms, and the war ends in 241 BC.

What is still debated. according to scholars, the author writes about eighty years after these events and summarizes a history already known.

What would be striking if the text came first

A Babylonian tablet of the time, with no connection to the Bible, confirms this avenging expedition. If the text does date from 536 BC, as tradition holds, that is nearly three centuries in advance; according to historians, the author was writing eighty years after the events.

Main objection (in French for now)

Dans la datation critique, ces événements ont quatre-vingts ans quand l’auteur écrit : il résume une histoire connue, probablement à partir de sources hellénistiques.

The text (World English Bible)

“The king of the south will be strong. One of his princes will become stronger than him, and have dominion. His dominion will be a great dominion. At the end of years they will join themselves together; and 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 the strength of her arm. He will also not stand, nor will his arm; but she will be given up, with those who brought her, and he who became the father of her, and he who strengthened her in those times.

Dan 11:5-6

“But out of a shoot from her roots one will stand up in his place, who will come to the army and will enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and will deal against them and will prevail. He will also carry their gods with their molten images, and with their goodly vessels of silver and of gold, captive into Egypt. He will refrain some years from the king of the north. He will come into the realm of the king of the south, but he will return into his own land.

Dan 11:7-9

Sources