¹⁶ These final days are especially difficult for God’s people, who during this century have been persecuted by both kings. The angel warned that the king of the north “will also actually enter into the land of the Decoration, and there will be many lands that will be made to stumble.” “The land of the Decoration” is symbolically the land of God’s people. The angel’s words must mean, then, that as well as conquering many nations, the king of the north attacks the spiritual estate of Jehovah’s people. (Daniel 8:9; 11:41-44; Ezekiel 20:6) In Dan 11 verse 45, the prophecy adds: “And he will plant his palatial tents between the grand sea and the holy mountain of Decoration.” In other words, he positions himself to make a final assault against their spiritual paradise.

18. (a) What is the source of the “reports” foretold by the angel? (b) What will be the final outcome for the king of the north?

¹⁸ What will these reports be? The angel does not specify, but he does reveal their source. They come “out of the sunrising,” and Jehovah God and Jesus Christ are alluded to as “the kings from the rising of the sun.” (Revelation 16:12) These reports also come “out of the north,” and the Bible speaks symbolically of Mount Zion, the town of the grand King Jehovah, as being “on the remote sides of the north.” (Psalm 48:2) Hence, it is “reports” from Jehovah God and Jesus Christ that send the king of the north on his last great campaign. But the results will be devastating to him. The end of Da 11 verse 45 tells us: “He will have to come all the way to his end, and there will be no helper for him.”

2, 3. (a) What prophecy do we find in the book of Ezekiel that helps us to understand the prophecy about the king of the north and the king of the south? (b) According to Ezekiel’s prophecy, what will be the outcome of the great final attack on God’s people?

² A prophecy by Daniel’s contemporary Ezekiel helps us to answer these questions. Ezekiel, too, was inspired to speak about “the final part of the days,” and he warned of a coming attack of ‘Gog of Magog’ against the land of God’s people. (Ezekiel 38:2, 14-16; Daniel 10:14) In that prophecy, Gog pictured Satan, and his armies pictured all of Satan’s earthly agents who would make a last, desperate attempt to wipe out God’s people. Since this attack, like that of the king of the north, takes place in the final part of the days, it is reasonable to conclude that the king of the north’s ‘planting of his palatial tents between the grand sea and the holy mountain of Decoration’ is in support of Gog’s attack. (Daniel 11:40, 45) Will the attack succeed?