But the prince of the kingdom of Persia
This phrase introduces a spiritual being, often interpreted as a demonic entity or fallen angel, who holds influence over the earthly kingdom of Persia. The Hebrew word for "prince" is "śar," which can denote a leader or ruler, both in the physical and spiritual realms. In the context of Daniel, this suggests a cosmic battle between angelic forces, reflecting the belief in spiritual warfare that transcends earthly politics. Historically, Persia was a dominant empire during Daniel's time, and this spiritual "prince" symbolizes the opposition faced by God's people in a world ruled by pagan powers.

withstood me
The Hebrew root "ʿāmad" means to stand or take a stand, indicating resistance or opposition. This highlights the reality of spiritual conflict, where even heavenly beings encounter resistance from opposing forces. The imagery of standing against suggests a battle of wills and power, emphasizing the perseverance required in spiritual warfare. This resistance is not merely physical but deeply spiritual, affecting the unfolding of God's plans on earth.

twenty-one days
The specific mention of "twenty-one days" underscores the duration and intensity of the spiritual battle. In biblical numerology, the number three often signifies completeness or divine perfection, and seven represents spiritual perfection. Thus, three times seven (21) could symbolize a period of complete spiritual testing or trial. This duration also aligns with Daniel's three-week period of mourning and fasting (Daniel 10:2-3), suggesting that his prayers were part of the spiritual struggle occurring in the heavenly realms.

Then Michael, one of the chief princes
Michael is introduced as a significant angelic figure, often associated with protection and warfare on behalf of God's people. The name "Michael" means "Who is like God?" in Hebrew, emphasizing his role as a defender of divine authority. As "one of the chief princes," Michael holds a high rank among the heavenly hosts, indicating a structured hierarchy in the spiritual realm. His intervention signifies the importance of divine assistance in overcoming spiritual opposition.

came to help me
The phrase "came to help" reflects the collaborative nature of angelic beings in fulfilling God's purposes. The Hebrew root "bô'" (to come) and "ʿāzar" (to help) together convey the idea of timely intervention and support. This highlights the assurance that God provides aid through His messengers, reinforcing the belief that believers are not alone in their spiritual battles. Michael's assistance underscores the power of divine intervention in overcoming evil.

for I had been left there with the kings of Persia
The phrase "left there" suggests a temporary stalemate or holding position in the spiritual conflict. The "kings of Persia" likely refer to other spiritual entities aligned with the prince of Persia, indicating a coalition of opposition forces. This highlights the organized resistance against God's plans, yet also the eventual triumph of divine forces. The mention of being "left" implies that the battle is ongoing, but with the assurance of eventual victory through divine intervention. This serves as a reminder of the persistent nature of spiritual warfare and the need for steadfast faith and prayer.

(13) The prince of the kingdom.--Perhaps no single verse in the whole of the Scriptures speaks more clearly than this upon the invisible powers which rule and influence nations. If we were without a revelation, we should have thought it congruent that God Himself should direct all events in the world without using any intervening means. But revelation points out that as spiritual beings carry out God's purpose in the natural world (Exodus 12:23; 2Samuel 24:16) and in the moral world (Luke 15:10), so also they do in the political world. From this chapter we not only learn that Israel had a spiritual champion (Daniel 10:21) to protect her in her national life, and to watch over her interests, but also that the powers opposed to Israel had their princes, or saviours, which were antagonists of those which watched over Israel. The "princes" of the heathen powers are devils, according to 1Corinthians 10:20. The doctrine of the ministry of angels is taught in Psalm 34:7; Psalm 91:11; Psalm 96:5 (LXX.); Isaiah 24:21; Isaiah 46:2; Jeremiah 46:25; Jeremiah 49:3. Further passages in the New Testament bearing upon the question are 1Corinthians 8:5; Colossians 1:16. . . . Verse 13. - But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but, lo, Michael, one of the ohief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. The rendering of the LXX. is, "And the general (στρατηγὸς) of the King of the Persians withstood me one and twenty days, and behold Michael, one of the first princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the general of the King of the Persians." The sense of Theedotion is nearly the same as the LXX., only he has βασιλείας Περσῶν instead of βασιλέως. Like the LXX., Thee-dotion declares that Michael was left with the Prince of Persia. The Peshitta agrees more with the Massoretic, but, like the LXX. and Theedotion, it is with the "Prince" of Persia that there is some one remaining. The Peshitta here, in opposition to the Greek versions, has the statement that Gabriel remained, not Michael. The Vulgate agrees still further with the Massoretic, only instead of the plural "kings," it has "king." The most important differences are in the last clause, where the LXX. and Theodotion must have had the hiphil of יָתִר where the Massoretic has the niphal. Gratz adopts this reading, which certainly has the advantage of making sense of an otherwise unintelligible passage. Professor Bevan, in his easy way, suggests this to be probably a mere guess, the insertion of αὐτὸν, and the substitution of a transitive for an intransitive verb are quite in the manner of the LXX. translators. He forgets that Theodotion also has this variation, and also that, without any justification from the versions, he himself has suggested various readings. He does not observe that this interpretation affords a reason for Gabriel's presence with Daniel. Michael relieved him in his opposition to the Prince of Persia. The other variant, "prince" instead of "king," has the support of all the versions. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days. That is to say, during the whole of Daniel's fast. The angelology of later Judaism is a very complicated, not to say confused, subject. The angelology of one age is not that of another; and the angelology of the Jews in one country is not that of the Jews in another. The Jews themselves understood that the Babylonian captivity did a great deal to develop the doctrine of the angels; the Jewish tradition was that they brought back from Babylon the names of the angels. Not only had their residence in Babylon defined the Jewish ideas as to the names f the angels, they began to have clearer ideas of their functions. They reached the idea that every race had its guardian angel. This view is expressed in Deuteronomy 32:8, according to the Septuagint, "He set bounds for the nations according to the number of the angels of God." To a similar purport is Ecclus. 17:17, "To each of the nations he appointed a leader, and Israel is the portion of the Lord." There seems, however, a preparation for this in Isaiah 24:21 (comp. also Psalm 29:1; Psalm 106:9). As independent of revelation there is a strong inherent probability that there are races of beings of intelligence and might vastly superior to man, there is nothing inherently improbable in these intelligences being employed by the Almighty in furthering his providential scheme. Men are instruments of God; is it not at least not improbable that, if there are angels, they, too, co-operate with God in the working out of his great purpose? That every nation should have an angelic prince over it is not more extraordinary than that every Church should have a special angel over it (Revelation 1:20; Revelation 2:2, etc.). That there should be conflicts between these angelic princes is simply to say they are finite. Hitzig's reference to Revelation 12:7 is not to the point, for there is no indication of warlike opposition here. By the indications here, we might judge that the opposition of the Prince of Persia was to the coming of Gabriel to reveal to Daniel the purpose of God. We know nothing of the means employed in the opposition, or of the reason of it. Keil and Kliefoth have the idea that Gabriel was striving to influence the King of Persia, but was hindered in his efforts by the "Prince of Persia;" this is scarcely berne out by the context. But, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. Michael ("Who is like God?") is, in the twenty-first verse, declared to be the "prince" of the Jewish people, therefore equivalent to "the captain of the host of the Lord" (Joshua 5:14). He is referred to in Revelation 12:7 and Jude 1:9. Where he is called one of "the chief princes," there is reference to an angelic hierarchy, whether the same as that we find developed in the Book of Enoch or not cannot be decided certainly. In the Book of Tobit 12:15 Raphael declares himself "one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints, and who go in and out before the glory of the Holy One." The Book of Tobit seems to have been written about B.C. 400; hence this is an indication of opinion before the Books of Enoch. In the Enoch books not only are the great angels mentioned, but their names arc given, and functions are assigned to them; but they are numbered as four, not seven. Enoch is posterior to Tobit, and finds a place for Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. We have no means of testing whether the number of the chief angelic princes, of whom Michael was one, was four or seven, according to the opinion of Daniel. From the fact that Enoch is, so to speak, in the direct line of apocalyptic descent from Daniel, and Tobit is not, and, moreover, as the angelology of Tobit is in close connection with the Persian hierarchy of am-haspentas, of which there were seven, - we may regard four as the more genuinely Jewish number. The later Jewish angel-elegy has many Persian elements, as shown by Dr. Kohut, in his 'Angelologie und Demonologie.' Whether the number of the archangels be made four or seven, both Gabriel and Michael are of the number, whereas Gabriel's words would rather indicate that, though Michael belonged to the rank of chief prince, he did not. As we cannot tell the nature of the opposition, we cannot tell the nature of the help afforded. And I remained there with the kings of Persia. It is very difficult to interpret this if we retain the Massoretic reading. In the first place, the sense given to nothartee in the Authorized and Revised is unsuitable. The angel is explaining how, after having delayed three whole weeks, he has now come. The sentence, as interpreted above,would have explained why he could not come at all to Daniel. It is attempted to get over this by explaining that Gabriel had beaten off the "Prince" of Persia, and that Michael remained with the King of Persia instead of him. This view, however, contradicts the function assigned to angels of nations, and implies a quasi-omnipresence on the part of Gabriel, and would render his explanation no explanation. The explanation of Gesenius, Havernick, and yon Lengerke, that nothartee is to be taken as meaning "I received the pre-eminence," as Wirier, "superior discessi apud reges Persarum," has no justification in usage. Gescnius would bring in the Syriac use of the hithpael of this verb, but though both Castell and Brockehuann assign meanings suitable, none of their quotations represents a sense precisely similar to that assigned to the verb here Hitzig's interpretation, "I was delayed," fails to explain his coming. Ewald's explanation, "I was superfluous," is logical, but has no grammatical justification. Professor Bevan's explanation, which would take this last clause as parenthetical, is untenable, as it supplies no redden for the presence of Gabriel with Daniel. We must follow the LXX. and Theodotion in reading, either as Meinhold and Behrmann, וְהותַרְתִּין or better, as Gratz, אִתּו הֹותַרְתִּי, as the vav in the former ease would naturally be read conversively. Besides, Gratz's reading explains the needlessly emphatic אֲנִי. Further, it seems needful to accept the reading of the two Greek versions and the Peshitta, and instead of מַלְכֵי read שד. None of the old versions support the Massoretic; the Vulgate is the nearest; and all of them have either read מֶלֶך or regarded מלכי as a form of the construct state, and so vocalized differently. Further, the later context here implies the contiuance of the conflict or controversy (vers. 20, 21). We must understand, then, that Gabriel left Michael to maintain the conflict against the angelic "Prince" of Persia, while he came in obedience to Daniel's prayer. We can have but little idea of what is meant by this conflict in the heavenlies between angelic beings.

Parallel Commentaries ...


However, the prince
וְשַׂ֣ר ׀ (wə·śar)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 8269: Chieftain, chief, ruler, official, captain, prince

of the kingdom
מַלְכ֣וּת (mal·ḵūṯ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 4438: Royalty, royal power, reign, kingdom

of Persia
פָּרַ֗ס (pā·ras)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 6539: Persia -- a country in west Asia which conquered Babylon

opposed
עֹמֵ֤ד (‘ō·mêḏ)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 5975: To stand, in various relations

me
לְנֶגְדִּי֙ (lə·neḡ·dî)
Preposition-l | first person common singular
Strong's 5048: A front, part opposite, a counterpart, mate, over against, before

for twenty-one
עֶשְׂרִ֣ים (‘eś·rîm)
Number - common plural
Strong's 6242: Twenty, twentieth

days.
י֔וֹם (yō·wm)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3117: A day

Then Michael,
מִֽיכָאֵ֗ל (mî·ḵā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 4317: Michael -- 'Who is like God?' an angel, also a number of Israelites

one
אַחַ֛ד (’a·ḥaḏ)
Number - masculine singular construct
Strong's 259: United, one, first

of the chief
הָרִאשֹׁנִ֖ים (hā·ri·šō·nîm)
Article | Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 7223: First, in place, time, rank

princes,
הַשָּׂרִ֥ים (haś·śā·rîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8269: Chieftain, chief, ruler, official, captain, prince

came
בָּ֣א (bā)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

to help me,
לְעָזְרֵ֑נִי (lə·‘ā·zə·rê·nî)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct | first person common singular
Strong's 5826: To surround, protect, aid

for I
וַאֲנִי֙ (wa·’ă·nî)
Conjunctive waw | Pronoun - first person common singular
Strong's 589: I

had been left
נוֹתַ֣רְתִּי (nō·w·ṯar·tî)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 3498: To jut over, exceed, to excel, to remain, be left, to leave, cause to abound, preserve

there
שָׁ֔ם (šām)
Adverb
Strong's 8033: There, then, thither

with
אֵ֖צֶל (’ê·ṣel)
Preposition
Strong's 681: A joining together, proximity

the kings
מַלְכֵ֥י (mal·ḵê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 4428: A king

of Persia.
פָרָֽס׃ (p̄ā·rās)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 6539: Persia -- a country in west Asia which conquered Babylon


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OT Prophets: Daniel 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom (Dan. Da Dn)