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¹ And I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I was standing for a supporter and for a fortress for him.² And now I will declare the truth to you: Behold! Three kings shall stand up in Persia; and the fourth shall be rich in all greater riches. And when he is strong through his riches,he shall stir up all against thekingdom of Greece.³ And a mighty king shall stand up and shall rule with great authority and do according to his will.⁴ And when he stands up his kingdom shall be shattered and shall be divided to the four winds of the heavens, and not to his posterity, nor according to his authority with which he ruled. For his kingdom shall be pulled up and given to othersbesides these.

⁵ And the king of the south shall be strong. And one of his rulers, even he will be strong on him, and he will rule. His rule shall be a great rule.⁶ And at the end of the years they shall join together, and the king of the south's daughter shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not keep the power of the arm. And he will not stand, nor his arm. But she andthose who brought her shall be given up, also her begetter and her supporter in these times.⁷ But the shoots of her roots will stand in his place, and he shall come to the army and will enter into the fortress of the king of the north. And he will act against them and will show strength.⁸ And he will also bring their gods with their casted images, with silver and gold vessels of their possessions, into exile to Egypt. And for years he will stand away from the king of the north.⁹ And the king of the south will come into his kingdom and will return to his own land.¹⁰ But his sons shall be stirred up and shall gather a multitude of great forces. And one certainly shall come and overflow and pass through. And he will return to his fortress and be stirred up.¹¹ And the king of the south will be bitter and will go out and fight with him, with the king of the north. And he shall raise a great multitude, but the multitude shall be given into his hand.¹² And having carried away the host, his heart will be lifted up. And he will cause myriads to fall, but he shall not be strong.¹³ For the king of the north shall return and raise a greater host than the former. And at the end of times, years, coming he shall come with a great army and with much equipment.¹⁴ And in those times many shall stand up against the king of the south. And the sons of the violent ones of your people shall rise up to establish the vision, but they shall stumble.¹⁵ And the king of the north shall come and pour out a siege mound and seize a fortified city. And the arms of the south shall not stand, nor his choice people, for there will be no firmness to stand.¹⁶ But he who comes against him will do as he desires, and none shall stand before him. And he shall stand in the glorious land, and destruction shall be in his hand.¹⁷ And he shall set his face to go in with the might of all his kingdom, and upright ones with him; so he shall do. And he shall give the daughter of women to him, to destroy it. But she shall not stand, nor be for him.¹⁸ And he shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall capture many. But a ruler shall make cease his reproach for him, but his reproach shall return to him.¹⁹ And he shall turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and shall not be found.²⁰ And one who passes over a tax exacter shall stand in his place, for the glory of the kingdom. But within a few days he will be shattered, but not in anger and not in battle.

²¹ And a despised one shall stand up on his place, and they shall not give to him the honor of the king. But he shall come in while at ease and make strong the kingdom by intrigues.²² And the forces of the overflow shall be swept from before his face, and they will be shattered, and also the ruler of a covenant.²³ And after they join themselves to him, he will practice deceit; for he shall come and shall be strong with a few people.²⁴ He will go in safely, even into the rich places of the province. And he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers. He shall plunder and spoil and scatter goods amongthem. And he shall devise his plots againstthe strongholds, even for a time.²⁵ And he will stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south will be stirred up to battle with a great and very mighty army. But he shall not stand, for they will devise plots againsthim.²⁶ Yea, those who eat his food shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow. And many will fall down slain.²⁷ And both of them, the kings, shall have in their hearts to do evil, and they will speak lies at one table. But it will not prosper, for the end still shall be at the appointed time.²⁸ And he will return to his land with great wealth. And his heart shall be against the holy covenant. And he will act, and he shall return to his land.²⁹ At the appointed time he will return and come against the south. But it will not be as the former or as the latter.³⁰ For the Kittim ships will come against him. And he will be pained and turn back and be furious against the holy covenant. And he will act, and he will return and heed the forsakers of the holy covenant.³¹ And forces will stand away from him, and they will profane the sanctuary, the fortress. And they shall remove the regular sacrifice , and they will place the abomination that desolates.³² And he will defile by flatteries those who do evil against the covenant. But the people who know their God will be strong and will work.³³ And those who understand among the people will instruct many, yet they will stumble by the sword and by flame, by exile and spoil for days.³⁴ And when they shall stumble, they will be helped with a little help. But many will join them with hypocrisy.³⁵ And many of those who understand shall stumble, to refine and to purge them, and to make white to the time of the end. For it is yet for the appointed time.³⁶ And the king shall do according to his will. And he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god; he shall even speak marvelous things against the God of gods and shall prosper until thefury is completed. For that which is decreedshall be done.³⁷ He shall not regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women; yea, he will not come to any god. For he shall magnify himself above all.³⁸ But in his place he shall honor the god of forces, and he shall honor a god whom his fathers did not know, with gold and silver and with precious stones, and desirable things.³⁹ And he shall act in the strongholds of the fortresses with a foreign god, whom he shall acknowledge. He shall multiply in glory, and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for a price.⁴⁰ And at the end time, the king of the south will engage in butting with him. And the king of the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships. And he shall go into the lands and shall overflowand pass over.⁴¹ And he shall enter into the glorious land, and many will be stumbled. But these shall escape out of his hand: Edom and Moab, and the chief of the sons of Ammon.⁴² And his hand will stretch out against the lands, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.⁴³ But he will rule over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all Egypt's desirable things. And the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.⁴⁴ But news shall trouble him from the east and from the north. And he will go out with great fury to destroy and to devote many to destruction.⁴⁵ And he shall plant his palace tents between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, and there is not a helper for him.