Imatges de pàgina
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own will, and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed.

But the said Antiochus, coming against the Egyptian, shall do what he pleases, and none shall so much as resist him; and, when he hath subdued that land, he shall also seize upon Judea, that glorious land of God's chosen people, and shall lay it waste, by his powerful army.

XI. 17 He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her : but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him.

And he, the said Antiochus, shall address himself and the whole power of his kingdom, and that not without fair and plausible conditions, to get the full and peaceable possession of Egypt; for which cause, he shall give his daughter Cleopatra, to wife, unto Ptolemy Epiphanes; treating with her, by corrupt counsel, to destroy her husband: but she shall not be miscarried by that wicked counsel of her father, but shall rather favour and adhere to her husband.

XI. 18 After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach, he shall cause it to turn upon him.

After this shall Antiochus, king of Syria, set upon more remote nations, and shall take many of them: but the Roman Governor shall soon repress him, and take away the reproach cast upon that state by those his victories; and shall return the reproach of a foil upon him, in forcing him to dishonourable conditions, of disclaiming any right in or challenge to Europe, for ever after.

XI. 19 Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall.

Then shall he be glad to retire himself to his own forts in Syria: but even there, he shall miserably miscarry; for, while he shall go about a sacrilegious pillage of his idol temple by night, the inhabitants shall fall, in great indignation, upon him and his soldiers, and kill them in the place.

XI. 20 Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.

After him, there shall succeed, in his room, a son of his, Seleucus Philopater, or Soter; who shall be a great exactor upon his subjects, and a spoiler of the sacred treasures of the temple: but, within a few days after this sacrilegious practice, he shall be destroyed by poison, in the hand of Heliodorus, by the subornation of his brother Antiochus Epiphanes, affecting the kingdom after him.

XI. 21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

And, in his place, shall thereupon succeed a vile and notoriously

wicked and infamous person, even Antiochus Epiphanes; to whom, the States of that Kingdom shall not willingly yield the regiment thereof: but he shall, by treachery and secret circumvention, work himself into the throne, so as he shall come in, without any public opposition; and shall, by fraud and flattery, possess himself thereof."

XI. 22 And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the

covenant.

But, when he is once settled in the throne, he shall, as it were with a strong deluge, bear over and kill those, that stood against him; yea, even his brother Seleucus, (or, rather Ptolemy Philometor,) who joined in the league with him, shall be spoiled by him.

XI. 23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.

And, after the league made thus with Philometor, he shall work deceitfully: for he shall, upon fair pretences of friendship to his nephew, come into Egypt with a very small troop; but such picked and able men, as by whose hands he shall do great matters.

XI. 24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

He shall, upon these pretences, enter peaceably upon those territories of Syria, which were under the command of the Egyptian; and shall set garrison soldiers in the chief forts, which his fathers never did before him; and he shall corrupt the soldiers with bribes, to make them his; and shall lay plots for the taking of the strongest holds of Syria, when he shall find the time fit for his purposes.

XI. 25 And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him. And he shall raise great forces against the king of Egypt, his nephew, the son of his sister Cleopatra, namely Ptolemy Philometor; and shall set upon him with a great army: and the king of Egypt shall raise a powerful army to meet him; but shall not be able to stand before him, for his nobles shall devise treacherous counsels against him, to betray him.

XI. 26 Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down

slain.

Yea, his very courtiers and professed servants shall be the means of his destruction; and the army of Antiochus shall defeat that of Philometor, and many of them shall be slain.

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XI. 27 And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

And, when Antiochus shall have overrun a great part of Egypt, and this war shall seem to have an end, and a colourable reconciliation shall be treated; both these kings' hearts, viz. of Syria and Egypt, shall be secretly set to do mischief to each other: and they shall make false professions of friendship, at one table; but their designs shall not prosper, for the time appointed for the issue thereof is not yet come.

XI. 28 Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land.

Then shall Antiochus return into his land of Syria, with great riches, the spoils of Egypt; and his heart shall be set to oppose the ordinances and true religion of God, professed by his people; which when he hath bloodily persecuted, he shall return into his own land.

XI. 29 At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. At the time appointed by God, which is two years after the peace made, when Philometor, being fallen off from him, shall have made means to procure the aid of the Roman forces, shall Antiochus return, and come towards Egypt; but it shall not be with that prosperous success that he had formerly, and shall once more have afterwards.

XI. 30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

For the Roman sea-forces, which lie in the Mediterranean Sea, shall come against him, and drive him back therefore he shall return with sorrow enough, and shall be full of indignation against the holy religion of the Jews: he shall even return; and shall hold intelligence with Jason and Menelaus, and other apostates from the true religion, to do further mischief to the Church of God.

XI. 31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and they shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. And the Roman governors shall aid him in this horrible profanation of God's temple and worship; and both he and they shall take away that daily sacrifice, which God hath appointed; and they shall place abominable idols in God's temple, and shall fill the holy place with pagan soldiers, whose work is nothing but ruin and desolation.

XI. 34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

Now when they fall from their faith and religion, they shall have but small helps to raise them up and recover them: yet the ex

ample of the constancy of some worthy martyrs shall be a means to work upon divers of them; but very many shall, through their flatteries and plausible persuasions, be drawn away,

XI. 35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.

And not only those of the meanest rank for knowledge and understanding, but even those which are noted and eminent, shall fall; wherein God's purpose is for the trial and purging of his Church, that the hypocritical professors being removed, it may be pure and holy but this trial and affliction shall not be perpetual; it shall be till the end of that time, which God hath appointed unto it.

XI. 36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished.

And this proud Antiochus shall do what him listeth; and shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above all that is called God; and shall speak horrible blasphemies against him, that is the only true God; and shall go on prosperously in his wicked courses, till the full measure of God's indignation be made up against him, and till the time of his severe judgment shall come.

XI. 37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

He shall be a perfect Antichrist; not regarding even those gods, which his fathers worshipped, but scorning all whatsoever deities; and shall be void of those natural affections, which are commonly incident unto men; being only bent to fulfil his cruel and bloody desires, without all respect, either to men or to God himself, over whom he shall, in the pride of his heart, exalt himself.

XI. 38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

But yet in the seat or temple of God in Jerusalem, he shall fashionably honour Jupiter Olympius, a Grecian god, whom his fathers knew not, as being only acquainted with the Syrian deities; him, he shall honour with gifts and offerings of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pleasant things.

I say,

XI. 39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

Thus shall be do in the most strong holds of Judea; setting up the image and worship of this strange god in them all: and, those base persons, whom he shall affect, he shall advance to great glory; and shall cause them to rule over many better than themselves; and shall share the land of Judea amongst them, for a reward of their unworthy service.

XI. 40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, &c.

And at the time fore-appointed by God, which shall be two years after the setting up of this idolatry in Judea, shall the king of Egypt make head against this Antiochus king of Syria; and the king of Syria shall come against him, like a whirlwind, &c.

XI. 41 And he shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown.

And, having overrun Egypt, he shall again enter into the goodly land of Judea, and many countries shall be wasted by him. XI. 43 And the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

And the Ethiopians shall submit themselves to him, and follow him in his wars.

XI. 44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many.

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But tidings shall come to him, from the east, which shall trouble him, viz. that the Parthians have invaded his coast; and so also from the north of Egypt, where he shall then be, that the Jews are endeavouring a revolt from him: therefore he shall go forth of Egypt, with much fury, and revengeful resolutions to destroy

many.

XI. 45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

And he shall resolve to settle his palace in Judea, between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, even in the glorious holy mountain of Sion; yet he shall be defeated, and brought at last to his end; and, when he shall have diverted his forces against the Persian, he shall be shamefully foiled, and none shall help him.

XII. 1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

And at that time, when Antiochus shall have left his affairs in Judea together with his son to the charge of Lysias, and shall go himself upon his expedition against the Parthians, then shall Michael stand up, that great Archangel, which standeth for the children of thy people, very seasonably, in respect of the great trouble and affliction of that nation; which shall have been so great, as never was since there was a people upon earth: and at that time shall be begun the happy deliverance of thy people, even of every of my elect servants, whose names are written in the Book

of Life.

XII. 2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

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