| Daniel 11:38
| But he shall worship the god Maozim, in his place: and a god whom his fathers knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and things of great price.
| The god Maozim. That is, the god of forces or strong holds. (Challoner) --- Mahuzzim denotes "strong ones," (Haydock) guardians, etc. Dr. Newton (Diss.) explains, the king (ver. 36) of the Roman state; and supposes that here the guardian saints and angels are meant, whose worship he shews "began in the Roman empire, very soon after it became Christian. This exposition seems far preferable to that which interprets" Jupiter or the heavens, and understands the idol set up by Epiphanes. See Univ. Hist. X. Parkhurst. --- If these authors speak of the inferior veneration shewn to saints and angels in the Catholic Church, it had a much earlier commencement, being coeval with religion itself. But only the blindest prejudice can represent this as idolatrous, and of course this system must fall to the ground. (Haydock) --- Others suppose that Mars, Hercules, Azizus, or Jupiter, may be designated. Hebrew, "He will rise up against all, (38) and against the strong God (of Israel, ver. 31.; and Daniel 8:10.) (Calmet) he will, in his place, worship a strange god, " etc. (Junius) --- None of the ancestors of Epiphanes had ever adored Jupiter on the altar of holocausts. (Calmet) --- He and antichrist adore either the great Jupiter or their own strength. (Worthington)
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