‘And The King of The South [Ptolemy IV] shall be moved with choler (rage);

And shall come forth and fight with Him [Antiochus III] – even with The King of The North;

And He [The King of The North, Antiochus III] shall set forth A Great Multitude;

But The Multitude shall be given into His (His Enemy’s) [Ptolemy IV] ‘s Hand.’

In this verse, Daniel, The Servant of King Cyrus of Persia (559 B.C.E. – 530 B.C.E.), is given by The Angel Gabriel – at The Behest of THE SON OF GOD – In Cyrus’ third year as King of Babylon (534 B.C.E.) a prophecy of one of the great battles of The Hellenistic Era. This Era began after the death of Alexander The Great, who died in 323 B.C.E. It continued until 31 B.C.E., The Battle of Actium, when Octavian assumed control of The Roman Republic and became its first emperor), Caesar Augustus who died in 14 C.E.

This battle between Ptolemy IV (221 -204) and Antiochus III (23B.C.E. – 187 B.C.E.) took place at Raphia, near Gaza.

It involved:

• 75.000 Ptolemaic forces versus 68,000 Seleucid forces
• 5.000 Ptolemaic cavalry versus 6,000 Seleucid cavalry
• 73 Ptolemaic elephants versus 103 Seleucid elephants
• 2.200 Ptolemaic losses versus 14,300 Seleucid losses

Nevertheless, this great battle (which saw the defeat of Antiochus III) was not the largest battle which took place in history. That battle took place in Jerusalem and it saw the defeat of the mightiest enemy who ever waged war on humanity, Sin and Death itself:

Next Week: Daniel 11:12