“Now I, in the ^afirst year of Darius the Mede, ¹I stood to strengthen and to be a fortress for him. 2 So now I will tell you the ^atruth. Behold, three more kings are going to stand ¹in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them; as soon as he becomes strong through his riches, ²he will arouse the whole empire against the kingdom of ^3bGreece. 3 And a ^amighty king will stand, and he will ¹dominate with great ²domination and ^bdo as he pleases. 4 But as soon as he stands, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out ^atoward the ^bfour winds of ¹heaven, but not to his own descendants, nor according to his ²domination with which he ³dominated, for his kingdom will be ^cuprooted and given to others besides ⁴them.

5 “Then the ^aking of the South will grow strong, ¹along with one of his princes ²who will grow strong over him and ³obtain dominion; indeed, his ⁴domain will be a great ⁵dominion. 6 And ¹after some years they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the South will come to the ^aking of the North to carry out ²an equitable arrangement. But she will not retain her ³position of power, nor will he continue to stand with his ⁴power, but she will be given up, along with those who brought her in and the one who fathered her as well as he who strengthened her in those times. 7 But one of the ¹descendants of her line will stand in his place, and he will come against their military force and enter the ^afortress of the king of the North, and he will deal with them and display strength. 8 And also their ^agods with their ¹metal images and their desirable vessels of silver and gold he will bring into captivity to Egypt, and he on his part will stand back from attacking the king of the North for some years. 9 Then ¹the latter will enter the kingdom of the king of the South, but will return to his own land.

10 “And his sons will wage war. So they will gather a multitude of great forces; and one of them will keep on coming and ^aoverflow and pass through, that he may ¹again wage war up to his very fortress. 11 And the ^aking of the South will be enraged and go forth and fight ¹with the king of the North. Then the latter will cause a great multitude to stand, but that multitude will be given into ²the hand of the former. 12 Then the multitude will be carried away, his heart will be lifted up, and he will cause tens of thousands to fall; yet he will not prevail. 13 And the king of the North will again cause a much greater multitude than the former to stand, and at the ^aend of the times of those years, he will keep on coming with a great military force and much equipment.

14 “Now in those times many will stand against the king of the South; the violent ones among your people will also lift themselves up in order to cause the vision to stand, but they will ¹fall down. 15 Then the king of the North will come, cast up a ^asiege ramp, and capture a well-fortified city; and the might of the South will not stand, not even ¹their choicest troops, for there will be no strength to make a stand. 16 But he who comes against him will ^ado as he pleases, and ^bno one will be able to stand in ¹opposition to him; he will also stand for a time in the ^2cBeautiful Land, with destruction in his hand. 17 And he will ^aset his face to come with the authority of his whole kingdom, ¹bringing with him ²an equitable proposal which he will ³put into effect; he will also give him the daughter of women to destroy it. But she will not take a stand for him or be ⁴on his side. 18 Then he will turn his face to the ^acoastlands and capture many. But a ruler will make his reproach against him cease; moreover, he will ^brepay him for his reproach. 19 So he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will ^astumble and fall and be ^bfound no more.

20 “Then in his place one will stand who will ^ahave an ¹oppressor pass through the ²Jewel of his kingdom; yet within a few days he will be broken, though not in anger nor in battle. 21 And in his place a despised person will stand, to whom the splendor of the kingdom has not been given, but he will come in a time of ease and ^atake hold of the kingdom by intrigue. 22 But the overflowing ^1amight will be flooded away before him and broken, and also the prince of the covenant. 23 And after an alliance is made with him, he will ¹practice deception, and he will go up and gain power with a small force of people. 24 ¹In a time of ease he will enter the ^arichest parts of the province, and he will do what his fathers never did, nor his fathers’ fathers; he will distribute plunder, spoil, and possessions among them, and he will devise his schemes against strongholds, but only for a time. 25 And he will stir up his strength and heart against the ^aking of the South with a great military force; so the king of the South will wage war with an extremely large and mighty military force for war; but he will not stand, for schemes will be devised against him. 26 And those who eat his choice food will break him, and his military force will ^1aoverflow, but many will fall down slain. 27 And as for both kings, their hearts will be intent on ^aevil, and they will ^bspeak falsehood at the same table; but it will not succeed, for the ^cend is still to come at the appointed time. 28 Then he will return to his land with great possessions; but his heart will be set against the holy covenant, and he will take action and then return to his own land.

29 “At the appointed time he will return and come into the South, but ¹this last time it will not happen the way it did before. 30 Indeed, ships of ^1aKittim will come against him; therefore he will be disheartened and will return and become indignant at the holy covenant and take action; so he will come back and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. 31 Mighty forces from him will stand, ^aprofane the sanctuary fortress, and abolish the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the ^babomination ¹of desolation. 32 And by ^asmooth words he will ¹turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display ^bstrength and take action. 33 And ^1athose who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many; yet they will ^bfall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days. 34 Now when they fall, they will be granted a little help, and many will ^ajoin with them in ^1bintrigue. 35 And some of ¹those who have insight will fall, in order to ^arefine, ^bpurge, and make them ^2cpure until the time of the ^dend, because it is still to come at the appointed time.

36 “Then the king will ^ado as he pleases, and he will exalt and ^bmagnify himself above every god and will ^cspeak ¹astonishing things against the ^dGod of gods; and he will succeed until the ^eindignation is finished, for that which is ^fdecreed will be done. 37 He will show no regard for the ¹gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all. 38 But ¹instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones, and desirable things. 39 And he will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will give great honor to ¹those who recognize him and will cause them to rule over the many and will apportion land for a price.

40 “And at ^athe time of the end, the ^bking of the South will collide with him, and the ^cking of the North will ^dstorm against him with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships; and he will enter lands, ^eoverflow them, and pass through. 41 And he will also enter the ^1aBeautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, ^bMoab, and the foremost of the sons of ^cAmmon. 42 Then he will send forth his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. 43 But he will rule over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and over all the desirable things of Egypt; and ^aLibyans and ^bEthiopians will follow at his ¹heels. 44 But reports from the East and from the North will dismay him, and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and ¹devote many to destruction. 45 And he will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful ^aHoly Mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.