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¹ "And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to help him and give him strength.) ² I tell you the truth. Three more kings will rule over Persia. Then a fourth will become much richer than all of them. As soon as he becomes strong because of his riches, he will move everyone against the nation of Greece. ³ Then a powerful king will rise up, and he will rule with power and do as he pleases. ⁴ But as soon as he has risen to power, his nation will be broken and divided to the four winds of heaven. It will not be divided among his own children, or because of his own power. For his power will be taken and given to others besides these.

The Nations of Egypt and Syria

⁵ "Then the king of the South will become strong. But one of his leaders will become stronger than he and will rule with much power. ⁶ After some years they will join together. The daughter of the king of the South will come to the king of the North to make an agreement. But she will not keep her power, and he will not keep his. She will be killed, together with those who brought her, and her father, and the one who helped her. ⁷ But one of her family will become king in his place. He will fight against the army and go into the strong city of the king of the North. He will fight against them and win. ⁸ And he will carry their false gods and objects of silver and gold away to Egypt. For some years he will leave the king of the North alone. ⁹ Then the king of the North will go to fight against the king of the South, but will return to his own land.

¹⁰ "His sons will get ready for war and gather together a very large army. They will come like a flood and pass through, and fight in battle as far as his strong city. ¹¹ The king of the South will be very angry and will go and fight with the king of the North, who will have a very large army. But his army will be given over to the king of the South. ¹² When the army is taken away, the king of the South will become very proud, and he will kill tens of thousands. But his strength will not last. ¹³ For the king of the North will gather together a larger army than before. And after some years he will come with a large army ready to do battle.

¹⁴ "In those times many will fight against the king of the South. Angry men among your people will also go against the king to do what was shown in the special dream, but they will not win. ¹⁵ Then the king of the North will come and build a battle-wall, and take a very strong city. The army of the South will not be able to stand against him, not even their best soldiers. They will not have enough strength. ¹⁶ The king of the North will do as he pleases. No one will be able to stand against him. He will stay for awhile in the Beautiful Land with the power to destroy it. ¹⁷ He will plan to come with the strength of his whole nation and will make a peace agreement with the king of the South. He will give him a daughter in marriage to try to destroy his nation. But she will not help him or be on his side. ¹⁸ Then he will turn to the lands beside the sea and take many in battle. But a captain will stop him (king of the North) in his pride, and cause trouble to be put on him. ¹⁹ So he will turn to the strong cities of his own land. But he will lose his step and fall, and will not be seen again.

The Sinful King of Syria

²⁰ "Then one will become king in his place, who will send a man through his great nation to make the people pay taxes. Yet within a short time that king will be killed, but not in anger or in battle. ²¹ A very sinful person will rise to power in his place. He will not be given the honor of being king, but he will come in a time of peace and take over the nation using smooth sounding words and false ways. ²² Armies will be driven away and destroyed in front of him, and also the ruler of the agreement. ²³ And after a peace agreement is made with him, he will use false ways and become strong with a small army. ²⁴ In a time of peace he will go into the richest parts of the land, and do what his fathers and his fathers' fathers never did. He will divide the things taken in war and things of worth among them, and make plans against strong cities, but only for a time. ²⁵ He will gather all his strength against the king of the South with a large army. So the king of the South will gather together a very large and powerful army for war, but he will not win the battle. Secret plans will be made against him. ²⁶ Those who eat his best food will destroy him. And his army will be driven away and many will be killed. ²⁷ The hearts of both kings will be sinful. They will lie to each other at the same table. But nothing will come of it, for the end will still come at the chosen time. ²⁸ Then the king of the North will return to his land with many things of much worth. But his heart will be set against the holy agreement. He will work against it and then return to his own land.

²⁹ "At the chosen time he will return to the South, but this time it will not be as it was before. ³⁰ For ships of Kittim will come against him, and he will be afraid and turn back. He will return in anger and go against the holy agreement. He will come back and show favor to those who have turned away from the holy agreement. ³¹ His armies will come and make the house of God unclean, and put an end to the burnt gifts. Then they will set up the very sinful manmade god. ³² He will speak well of those who sin against the agreement. But the people who know their God will show their strength and stand against him. ³³ Those people who are wise will make many understand. But for many days they will be killed by the sword or by fire, or be taken to prison or robbed. ³⁴ When they fall, they will receive a little help. And many will pretend to be their friends. ³⁵ Some of the wise people will be hurt, but this is so they will be made pure through punishment until the time of the end. For the end will still come at the chosen time.

³⁶ "Then the king will do as he pleases. He will honor himself more than every god, and will say very bad things against the God of gods. Everything will go well for him until the time of anger is finished. For what has been planned will be done. ³⁷ He will not care about the gods of his fathers or for the one that women like. He will not care about any other god, for he will honor himself more than any of them. ³⁸ Instead he will honor a god of strong cities, a god his fathers did not know. He will honor him with gold, silver, stones of much worth, and riches. ³⁹ And he will fight against the strongest cities with the help of a strange god. He will give great honor to those who follow him, and will let them rule over many people. And he will divide the land for a price.

⁴⁰ "At the time of the end the king of the South will go against him. And the king of the North will fight against him with war-wagons, horsemen, and many ships. He will come into countries like a flood and pass through. ⁴¹ He will also come into the Beautiful Land and many countries will be taken. But Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be saved from his power. ⁴² Then he will fight against other countries, and Egypt will be taken. ⁴³ He will get the hidden riches of gold and silver and all the things of great worth in Egypt. And the people of Libya and Ethiopia will follow behind him. ⁴⁴ But news from the East and from the North will trouble him, and he will go with much anger to kill and destroy many people. ⁴⁵ He will set up his tents made for kings between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.