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¹ IN the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first.² And I saw in my vision and it came to pass, I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in my dream that I was standing by the river Abol Ulai.³ Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river Abol a ram which had two horns; and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.⁴ I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward: and no beasts could stand before him, and there was none that could deliver out of his hands; but he did according to his will, and became great.⁵ And as I was considering it, behold, a he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, without harming the ground, and the he-goat had a prominent horn between his eyes.⁶ And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river Abol, and ran against him in the fury of his power.⁷ And when he reached the ram, he was furious against him, and struck the ram and broke his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of the hands of the he-goat.⁸ Therefore the he-goat became exceedingly great; and when he was strong, his great horn was broken; and there came up four prominent ones under it towards the four winds of heaven.⁹ And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which grew exceedingly great, toward the south and toward the east;¹⁰ And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them.¹¹ And it magnified itself even to the prince of the host, and it took away from him the continual sacrifice, and demolished the place of his sanctuary.¹² And a host was given to him against the continual sacrifice by reason of transgression, and the holy thing was cast down to the ground, and the horn went ahead and prospered.¹³ Then I heard a saint speaking, and another saint said to that certain saint who spoke, How long shall be the vision concerning the continual sacrifice, and how soon will the iniquity and corruption be over and the holy thing and host be trodden under foot?¹⁴ And he said to him, For two thousand and three hundred days; then righteousness shall prevail.

¹⁵ And it came to pass when I, Daniel, had seen this vision and sought to understand it, then behold, there stood before me as it were the appearance of a man.¹⁶ And I heard a mans voice between the banks of Ulai, who called and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.¹⁷ So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was afraid and fell upon my face; but he said to me, Understand, O Son of man; for at the time of the end shall be the vision.¹⁸ Now as he was speaking with me, I was in deep sleep on my face toward the ground; but he touched me and set me upright.¹⁹ And he said to me, Behold, I will show you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation; for at the expiration of the time appointed the end shall be.²⁰ The ram which you saw with two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia.²¹ And the he-goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.²² And as for the horn that was broken, and there rose four others under it, four kings shall rise up out of the nation, but not by their own power.²³ And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressions are come to an end, a king of fierce countenance who understands riddles shall arise.²⁴ And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall cause terrible destruction, and shall prosper and cross over and destroy the mighty and the holy people.²⁵ And through his craft and treachery his dominion shall prosper, and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and suddenly he shall destroy many; and he shall also rise up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be defeated easily.²⁶ And the vision of the morning and the evening which has been told is true; and as for you, Daniel, keep this vision a secret, for it shall not be for many days.²⁷ And I, Daniel, trembled and was troubled for some days; then I rose up and did the kings business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.