Daniel 11:37
in Daniel 11He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers, nor for the one desired by women, nor for any other god, because he will magnify himself above them all.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Daniel 11
Commentary
14 notes on this verse"And he shall make no account of the god of his fathers, and he shall be engrossed in lust for women; nor shall he have regard for any of the gods, for he shall rise up against everything." Instead of our rendering, the Septuagint translates: "...and he will not be subject to the lusts of women."
This site's exposition
the king shall do according to his will
on Daniel 11:36-39
At verse 36 the readings divide, and the notes name them: the wilful king who magnifies himself above every god and speaks marvellous things against the God of gods is Antiochus continued, so part of the bench, while the older dispensational line and much of the church's reading hear a figure beyond Antiochus, the final adversary Paul's man of sin echoes (2 Thess 2:4 speaks this verse's language, exalting himself above all that is called God), positions stated with holders and no verdict. Neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women regarded, the God of forces honoured with gold in strongholds: the portrait outruns what history records of Antiochus at several points, which is the textual ground the far readings stand on, stated as evidence rather than settled.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
And so these things the prophet described in this way concerning the Antichrist, as he will be shameless and warlike and a tyrant daring to exalt himself over every god, who boasts in his own power and pillages the fortresses of cities, and bearing lofty things in gold and silver and precious stone, he shall speak immoderate words against God, wishing that he himself alone be worshiped as God. Concerning him all Scripture is not silent and the prophets announced beforehand his coming for the destruction of many, and the Lord has testified to these things, and the apostles taught these things concerning him, and John in the Apocalypse mystically revealed his name through a number. The Lord displayed this abomination of desolation and the apostle taught that this son of the devil arrives according to the working of Satan. This one, having struck the city of Tyre, will also desolate the land of Egypt, having waged war he will extend and destroy all the land of Libya, and he shall ruin the kingdom of the Ethiopians with his might in the slaughter of the sword. He, being lifted up over every king and every god, shall build the city of Jerusalem and he shall raise the converted Temple, he shall restore both all the land and its borders to the Jews, and having summoned their people from the slavery of the nations, he shall exhibit himself to them as king, and at this the faithless shall worship him as God and shall bend the knee to him, considering him to be the Christ, not apprehending what was spoken by the prophet, how he is a deceiver and not truth. […]
A commentator
Victorinus of PettauVictorinus Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John · Written before 304.
proposed
"These shall hate the whore, to wit, the city, and shall burn her flesh with fire." Now that one of the heads was, as it were, slain to death, and that the stroke of his death was directed, he speaks of Nero. For it is plain that when the cavalry sent by the senate was pursuing him, he himself cut his throat. Him therefore, when raised up, God will send as a worthy king, but worthy in such a way as the Jews merited. And since he is to have another name, He shall also appoint another name, that so the Jews may receive him as if he were the Christ. Says Daniel: "He shall not know the lust of women, although before he was most impure, and he shall know no God of his fathers: for he will not be able to seduce the people of the circumcision, unless he is a judge of the law." Finally, also, he will recall the saints, not to the worship of idols, but to undertake circumcision, and, if he is able, to seduce any; for he shall so conduct himself as to be called Christ by them. But that he rises again from hell, we have said above in the word of Isaiah: "Water shall nourish him, and hell hath increased him; "who, however, must come with name unchanged, and doings unchanged, as says the Spirit.
But we find that Antiochus filled Jerusalem and all Judea with altars dedicated to idols and sacrificed to Zeus in the temple of God and called the temple in Jerusalem after Olympian Zeus and the temple on Mount Gerizim after Zeus Xenios. How, then, could …
And so the prophet, having described what has already occurred and has been accomplished in its own time, he proclaims another mystery to us, making an indication of the end of times. For he speaks in this way, "And another shameless king shall arise and he shall be exalted over every god and shall be magnified and he shall say immoderate things and he shall prosper until the wrath is consummated. For it is to be consummated. And he shall not regard any god of his fathers nor desire women and he shall not regard any god, because he shall be magnified over all. And he shall glorify the god of Moazeim in his place and a god which his fathers did not know; he shall honor in gold and silver and precious stones and he shall multiply glory and shall subject many to them and divide the earth in gifts. And these shall be preserved from his hand, Edom and Moab and the chief of the sons of Ammon. And he shall stretch forth his hand upon the earth and the land of Egypt shall not be saved and he shall rule over the secret things of gold and silver and of all the desirable things of Egypt and Libya and Ethiopia in their fortresses. And he shall pitch his tent Efadano between the seas near the holy Mountain of Sabir and he shall come to his lot." [Daniel 11:36-45]
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He was so proud that he thought himself above the condition of a mortal man, that he could command the waves of the sea, and reach to the stars of heaven, as his insolence and haughtiness are expressed, 2 Mac. ix. Thus he carried all before him, till the indignation was accomplished (
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7 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Though an affection to the religion of their ancestors was, among the heathen, almost as natural to them as the desire of women (for, if you search through the isles of Chittim, you will not find an instance of a nation that has changed its gods, Jer. ii.
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Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,....
The kingdom of Syria, which was set up by Seleucus Nicanor, or the conqueror; he was one of Alexander's princes, and became stronger than the other, and had the greatest dominion of all, was the most powerful of all Alexander's successors. It was said that he had no fewer than seven-two kingdoms under him.
And as it is usual with the prophets, when they foretel the prosperity of the Jewish church, to make use of such expressions as were applicable to the kingdom of Christ, and insensibly to slide into a prophecy of that, so, when they foretel the troubles of the church, they make use of such expressions as have a further reference to the kingdom of the antichrist, the rise and ruin of that.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Antiochus would set at naught even their entreaties that he should cease from his attack on Jehovah's worship [POLANUS]. MAURER refers it to Antiochus' attack on the temple of the Syrian Venus, worshipped by women (1 Maccabees 6:1, &c.; NEWTON refers it to Rome's "forbidding to marry." ELLIOTT rightly makes the antitypical reference be to Messiah.
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Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers - That God who sent the evangelists and apostles to preach the pure doctrine. These true fathers of the Christian Church, and their God, this Church has not regarded, but put councils, and traditions, and apocryphal writings in their place. Nor the desire of women - Both the Greek and Latin Church, in their antichristian enactments, have discouraged, and in several cases proscribed, marriage, under the pretense of greater chastity, to the discredit of God’s ordinance, and Christianity itself. Nor regard any god - For the mandates and decrees of that Church have been often in defiance of God and his word, for it has magnified itself above all power and authority in heaven and on earth. It professes to hold the keys, and to open and shut heaven at pleasure, both to states and individuals.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers - The God that his fathers or ancestors had worshipped: That is, he would not be bound or restrained by the religion of his own land, or by any of the usual laws of religion. He would worship any God that he pleased, or none as he pleased. The usual restraints that bind men - the restraints derived from the religion of their ancestors - would in this case be of no avail. See the notes at Dan 11:36. This was in all respects true of Antiochus.
The words behind it
17 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְעַל־ | veal- | and on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אֱלֹהֵ֤י | ʾelohei | [the] gods of | H430 → | 2601 times |
| אֲבֹתָיו֙ | ʾavotav | ancestors his | H1 → | 1212 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יָבִ֔ין | yavin | he will pay attention | H995 → | 170 times |
| וְעַל־ | veal- | and on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| חֶמְדַּ֥ת | chemdat | [the] desire of | H2532 → | 21 times |
| נָשִׁ֛ים | nashim | women | H802 → | |
| וְעַֽל־ | veal- | and on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | any | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| אֱל֖וֹהַּ | ʾeloah | god | H433 → | 57 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יָבִ֑ין | yavin | he will pay attention | H995 → | 170 times |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | above | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| כֹּ֖ל | kol | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| יִתְגַּדָּֽל׃ | yitgadal | he will magnify himself | H1431 → | 117 times |
וְעַל־and on
veal-H5921 →5755 times
אֱלֹהֵ֤י[the] gods of
ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times
אֲבֹתָיו֙ancestors his
ʾavotavH1 →1212 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יָבִ֔יןhe will pay attention
yavinH995 →170 times
וְעַל־and on
veal-H5921 →5755 times
חֶמְדַּ֥ת[the] desire of
chemdatH2532 →21 times
נָשִׁ֛יםwomen
nashimH802 →
וְעַֽל־and on
veal-H5921 →5755 times
כָּל־any
kol-H3605 →5413 times
אֱל֖וֹהַּgod
ʾeloahH433 →57 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יָבִ֑יןhe will pay attention
yavinH995 →170 times
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
עַל־above
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
כֹּ֖לall
kolH3605 →5413 times
יִתְגַּדָּֽל׃he will magnify himself
yitgadalH1431 →117 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 3:16To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
it leads to
- Titus 2:5
to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited.
- Colossians 3:18
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
- 1 Corinthians 11:3
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
- 1 Timothy 2:15
Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
- Ephesians 5:22–24
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
- Titus 2:5
Through
2 Thessalonians 2:4He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 28:2
“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord GOD says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 28:2
Through
1 Timothy 4:3They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
it leads to
- 1 Timothy 4:4
For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,
- Hebrews 13:4
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- 1 Timothy 4:4
Where this verse is studied
About Daniel

This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Daniel; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 4.49.1-7; Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 4.48.1-2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER ELEVEN; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 11:37 and Victorinus of Pettau, Victorinus Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John.
