Daniel 11:22

‘And with the arms of a flood will they be swept away from before him, and will be broken. Yes, even the prince of the covenant.'

Antiochus IV swept away all opposition from before him, overflowing them with an overwhelming flood, breaking them like a broken vessel. This included the Israelite high priest, Onias III, who was opposed to him, here called "the prince (nagid) of the covenant." Onias was in Antioch on affairs of state when Seleucus was assassinated. And it was while he was there that Antiochus deposed him by selling the high priesthood to the highest bidder, first to Jason, Onias' brother, and then to Menelaus who outbid him. Onias was thrust aside, although still recognised as the true high priest by the faithful in Israel. ‘Negid berith' was by now probably a technical term for the true high priest who was also political leader of his people. Outside the book of Daniel ‘nagid' in the singular always refers to the prince of Israel in relation to the covenant. (See introduction to Daniel 9:24).

Another view suggested is that Ptolemy VI was "the prince of the covenant" since Antiochus later made a treaty with him. But the term ‘covenant' in Daniel regularly means the holy covenant (Daniel 11:28; Daniel 11:30; Daniel 11:32; Daniel 9:4), and other alliances are described differently (Daniel 11:6; Daniel 11:17; Daniel 11:23). Nor is the king of the south likely suddenly to be called a nagid. Whereas we can quite understand that the writer wants us to be aware of Antiochus' treachery against Israel right from the start.