Charles Ellicott Commentary Daniel 11:8

"And also their gods, with their molten images, [and] with their goodly vessels of silver and of gold, shall he carry captive into Egypt; and he shall refrain some years from the king of the north." — Daniel 11:8 (ASV)

He shall continue. —Apparently the meaning is (compare the use of the preposition in Daniel 11:31) “He shall stand on the side of [i.e., as an ally of] the northern king several years.” Others translate, “He shall abstain from the king of the north some years.” In either case the sense is nearly the same. The reference is said to be to the cessation of hostilities between Ptolemy and Seleucus, but there is nothing in these verses which leads us to infer what history states as a fact, that the northern king was completely crippled by a serious defeat, and that his fleet was dispersed by a storm.