Albert Barnes Commentary Daniel 11:44

"But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many." — Daniel 11:44 (ASV)

But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him – These reports will disturb him or alarm him. That is, he will hear something from those regions that will disrupt all his other plans, or that will call him forth on his last and final expedition – the expedition on which he will come to his end (Daniel 11:45), or which will be the end of this series of historical events.

The reference here is to the winding up of this series of events. According to the view taken on Daniel 11:40 (see the note at that place), it is not necessary to suppose that this would happen immediately after what is stated in Daniel 11:43. Instead, it is to be regarded as a statement of what would occur in the end, or of the manner in which the person referred to here would finally come to an end, or in which these events would conclude. As a matter of fact, Antiochus, as will be seen in the notes at Daniel 11:45, was called forth on a warlike expedition by reports from Parthia and Armenia – regions lying to the east and the north. It was during this expedition that he lost his life, and this series of historical events concluded.

Lengerke says that Antiochus assembled an army to take vengeance on the Jews, who, after the close of the unfortunate campaign in Egypt, rose up under the Maccabees against Antiochus (1 Maccabees 3:10 and following). Then the news that the Parthians in the east and the Armenians in the north had armed themselves for war against him, alarmed him. So Tacitus (Hist. v. 8) says (concerning Antiochus and the Jews): Demere superstitionem et mores Groecorum dare adnixus, quominus teterrimam gentem in melius mutaret, Parthorum bello prohibitus est, nam ea tempestate Arsaces defecerat. In the year 147 B.C., Antiochus went on the expedition to Persia and Armenia, and he died on his return from it. The reasons for this were as follows:

1. Artaxias, the king of Armenia, who was his vassal, had revolted from him.
2. He sought to replenish his exhausted treasury so that he could wage war against Judas Maccabeus.

See 1 Maccabees 3:27-37; Josephus, Antiquities 12.7.2; Appian, Syriaca 46.80; Porphyry, in Jerome, in loc.

Therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy ... – This refers to his great fury at the revolt of Artaxias, especially at this juncture when he was waging war against the Jews; and his great fury at the Jews, with a determination to obtain the means to utterly destroy them. 1 Maccabees 3:27 states: Now when king Antiochus heard these things (the successes of Judas Maccabeus), he was full of indignation. In every way, his wrath was kindled. He was enraged against the Jews on account of their success; he was enraged against Artaxias for revolting from him; and he was enraged because his treasury was exhausted, and he did not have the means to prosecute the war.

In this state of mind, he crossed the Euphrates to prosecute the war in the East, and, as it is said here, utterly to make away many. Everything conspired to kindle his fury, and in this state of mind, he went forth on his last expedition to the East. Nothing, in fact, could better describe the state of mind of Antiochus than the language used here by the angel to Daniel.