According to most translations of the Bible, the prophecy begins with the angel telling Daniel: in the first year of Darius the Mede, he (the angel) stood to confirm and strengthen him (Daniel 11:1). The Septuagint claims it was Cyrus, whom the angel helped to strengthen. On the other hand, three translations, of which I am aware,[1] say that the angel helped and strengthened Michael, who is the Messiah, according to one of my previous studies. However, I hardly think the Messiah, God’s Anointed, needs to be strengthened by angels or by men. Nevertheless, “Michael, your Prince” is the last person referred to in the previous text (Daniel 10:21), and may very well be the person referred to in Daniel 11:1. Therefore, if we are to take these translations seriously, we need to put the help and the strength in context.
The angel could have been sent to strengthen and confirm Michael’s interests. In other words, the angel could have helped by inspiring the choice made by Darius the Mede to include Daniel in governing the former Babylonian empire (Daniel 6:1-3). Moreover, it is also possible for the angel to show Cyrus, perhaps through Darius by having Daniel inform him that Cyrus was prophesied in the scriptures to release the Jews in order to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1; cp Ezra 1:1).
This may make better sense in the flow of information in the text, than saying he strengthened and established Darius the Mede as king in Babylon. Why would this particular angel want to do such a thing, when the text actually has him fighting the Prince of Persia? The fact is, he may be the angel who was then guiding and strengthening Greece, and, if this is true, why would he want to strengthen and defend Darius the Mede, the king of the Babylonian Empire? Aiding the Messiah’s interests, as that applies to the Jews, doesn’t hinder the interests of the high-ranking angels, who had been charged with strengthening and protecting the interests of any of the angels sent to empower and establish the rising gentile kingdoms. For the most part, the Jews aided the existing world power in achieving its goals, whichever of the four ancient empires that may have been at any given time. So, helping the Jews makes more sense, than helping the new world empire, Persia, which the angel is destined to wage war against in the not very distant future.
Therefore, after telling Daniel he had helped his people during the first year of Darius the Mede, the angel made it clear to him that, after Cyrus, there would be three more kings in Persia, before another change would come among the kingdoms that would influence Jewish affairs. The angel revealed that the fourth king of Persia (fourth, which includes Cyrus in the count) would be very rich, far richer than his predecessors, and he would stir up his allies against Greece and go to war against them (Daniel 11:1-2).
However, a mighty king would stand up in Greece (Alexander the Great), and he would have his will done, instead of the king of Persia, and Persia would be defeated. Nevertheless, in the height of this king’s power, he will be broken, and his kingdom would fall, but not to a foreign power. Instead, he would die suddenly, and his kingdom would be broken up and divided four ways, not according to an inheritance for a relative, but among his generals (Daniel 11:3-4).
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[1] See EWB-CB; ESV; and GW.
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