Daniel 11:5

“And the king of the south shall be strong, etc.] That is, the king of Egypt, which lay south to Syria, as Syria lay north to Egypt; and therefore the king of the one is called the king of the south, and the other the king of the north, throughout this prophecy; and by the king of the south, or Egypt, is here meant Ptolemy Lagus, one of Alexander’s generals, who had Egypt for his share; and a very powerful king he was; for he reigned over Egypt, Lybia, Cyrene, Ethiopia, Arabia, Phoenicia, Coelesyria, Cyprus, and several isles in the Aegean sea, and many cities in Greece: and one of his princes; not of Ptolemy king of Egypt, but of Alexander the great; and this is Seleucus Nicator, afterwards…”

“Here the prophet leaves Asia and Greece and takes up Egypt and Syria, these being in continual conflict under Alexander's successors, entailing misery on Judea, which lay between the two. Holy Scripture handles external history only so far as it is connected with God's people, Israel [JEROME]. TREGELLES puts a chasm between the fourth and fifth verses, making the transition to the final Antichrist here, answering to the chasm (in his view) at Dan 8:22-23. king of . . . south--literally, "of midday": Egypt (Dan 11:8, Dan 11:42), PTOLEMY Soter, son of Lagus. He took the title "king," whereas Lagus was but "governor." one of his princes--Seleucus, at first a satrap of PTOLEMY Lagus, but from…”

“Daniel 8:7-8. The “king of the south” here is, undoubtedly, the king of Egypt. This part of the empire was obtained by Ptolemy, and was in the hands of his successors until Egypt was subdued by the Romans. Between the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria long and bloody wars prevailed, and the prospective history of these wars it is the design of the angel here to trace. As the remainder of the chapter refers to these two dynasties, until the death of the great persecutor, Antiochus Epiphanes, and as the events referred to were very important in history, and as introductory to what was to follow in the world, it may be useful here, in order to a clear exposition of the whole chapter, to present a…”

“The king of the south - This king was Ptolemy, the first king of Egypt after Alexander who is brought in, because he took Jerusalem by treachery; for the angel minds only those persons and things which related to the Jews. One of his princes - Seleucus Nicanor, who overcame Demetrius, and added Asia to his empire. Daniel 11:6”

“11:5-45 Throughout this passage, the king of the south describes Alexander’s general Ptolemy and his descendants, who ruled Egypt; the king of the north describes Alexander’s general Seleucus and his descendants, who ruled Syria and Mesopotamia. In the period following Alexander’s death, the kings of Egypt and Syria vied for control of the strategically located land of Palestine. The holy city and the holy people lay between these two powers. These battles continued until their appointed end (11:27, 35, 40, 45; 12:1, 7). These events are described historically in 1, 2, and 3 Maccabees and by Herodotus, Livy, Polybius, Porphyry, and Josephus. 11:5 The first king of the south was Ptolemy I…”

“the king: Ptolemy Lagus, king of Egypt, Cyrene, etc. Dan 11:8, Dan 11:9, Dan 11:11, Dan 11:14, Dan 11:25, Dan 11:40 and one: Dan 11:3, Dan 11:4 he shall: Seleucus Nicator, who had Syria, etc., to which he added Macedonia and Thrace. Daniel 11:6”

“From the 5th verse the prophecy passes to the wars of the kings of the south and the north for the supremacy and for the dominion over the Holy Land, which lay between the two. Dan 11:5 describes the growing strength of these two kings, and Dan 11:6 an attempt made by them to join themselves together. חזק, to become strong. The king of the south is the ruler of Egypt; this appears from the context, and is confirmed by Dan 11:8. שׂריו וּמן is differently interpreted; מן, however, is unanimously regarded as a partitive: "one of his princes," as e.g., Neh 13:28; Gen 28:11; Exo 6:25. The suffix to שׂריו (his princes) does not (with C. B. Michaelis, Bertholdt, Rosenmller, and Kranichfeld) refer…”