their kingdome] That is, full power over the Jewes, who, after Antiochus, did shake off the yoak of the Seleucidae, Chap. 7. 22. Otherwise they reigned as long againe after in their own countrey: but of those that reigned after Antiochus here is no speech.
transgressours] Among the people of the Jewes.
are come to the full] Heb. are accomplished.
the full] Of open impiety, and formall apostasie, Daniel 11:30. 1 Maccabees 11, 12. Genesis 15:16.
a king of fierce countenance] Namely, Antiochus Epiphanes, Cha. 7. 20. &11. 21. who was impudent, as Deuteronomy 28:50. and he is spoken of in the Maccabees and of heathen very much for impudencie against all divinitie, humanitie, and common wit. Of Polybius he was called Epimanes, that is, mad.
darke sentences] Heb. Chiddoth, is properly hid things, as Psalms 78:2. And whereas to understand hard sentences, that is a matter of a wise spirit: it cannot be that the Angel would so thinke of Epimanes, as to make him understand hard sentences who knew least of any that way. Hid mischiefes he minded, not hid parables.