Daniel 11:22

And the arms of the flood fig. for opposing forces. The metaphor is a mixed one: for -arms," cf. Daniel 11:15; for the fig. of the flood, Daniel 11:10; Daniel 11:26; Daniel 11:40; Isaiah 8:8; Isaiah 28:2; Isaiah 28:15; Jeremiah 47:2. The reference is ambiguous: it might of course be to the forces of Ptolemy Philometor; but more probably the domestic or other enemies who opposed Antiochus" rise to power are meant. According to Jerome there was a party in Syria which favoured the claims of Philometor.

shall be flooded (or swept) away from before him he will prevail against them.

be broken cf., of an army, 2 Chronicles 14:12.

and also the prince of the covenant most probably the high-priest, Onias III., who was deposed from his office by Antiochus in 175, and whose death was at least an indirect consequence of action taken by Antiochus (see above, on Daniel 9:26). The words might, however, be also rendered a confederate prince(cf. Genesis 14:13; Obadiah 1:7; Heb.): the reference would then be to Ptolemy Philometor; but it is an objection to this view that the king of Egypt is regularly throughout the chapter called the -king of the south"; nor are the relations which (so far as we know) subsisted between Antiochus and Philometor such as would be described naturally as a -covenant" or -league."