Daniel

One thing may here occur to the reader as desirable for the understanding of the whole, that is, to combine the agency of those instruments, which the prophecy of Daniel presents as acting in the land of Israel during the latter days, and to identify them — if it may be done — with those that are mentioned in other prophets. But this would be to make a system of prophecy, and not to explain Daniel. The Spirit of God has not done so in this prophet, which is our present subject. I will, therefore, only allude to some striking points.

Daniel 7 gives the character of the Roman empire, especially under its last head. It is the close of the history of the Gentile power. Daniel 8 (although I have often thought that the king, who is described there, might be the instrument in Israel of the western empire) gives to the horn it speaks of a different character — as it appears to me, in carefully weighing the passage — from that which constitutes the western power,* whether as a little horn, or exercised in some local instrument. It is an eastern power arising out of one of the four kingdoms into which Alexander's empire was broken up. His power, however, is derived from another; it is a separate power acting in Syria. In Daniel 9 we find the one who acts among the Jews in Jerusalem itself, in connection with the Roman empire, be the instrument employed who he may. It may be "the king" of Daniel 11 who finds himself between the kings of the south and of the north. But it is very possible that the little horn of Daniel 7 acts itself. Still there is another power dependent upon it, who acts at least religiously upon the Jews, and leads them into apostasy — one who comes in his own name, and does not regard the God of his fathers.
{* We may compare Ps. 74 and Ps. 83, which confirm the idea that there will be a destruction in Jerusalem, as well as the compelled cessation of the daily sacrifice accomplished in a religious way by the prince who is to come, the Roman of Daniel 9, who will be among the Jews, and who had professed himself to be their friend.}

"The king" of Daniel 11 is a king in Judea, despising the religion of his fathers, and acting in that country in a way morally unbridled, re-establishing idolatry, and dividing the territory among those in favour. The kings of the south and north are Egypt and Assyria in the latter days, who attack the king who has established himself in the Holy Land.

I suppose that "the king" answers to the second beast of Revelation, though in another aspect, as the first does to the little horn of Daniel 7.