¹ La première année de Belschatsar, roi de Babylone, Daniel eut un songe et des visions de son esprit, pendant qu'il était sur sa couche. Ensuite il écrivit le songe, et raconta les principales choses.

² Daniel commença et dit: Je regardais pendant ma vision nocturne, et voici, les quatre vents des cieux firent irruption sur la grande mer.

³ Et quatre grands animaux sortirent de la mer, différents l'un de l'autre.

⁴ Le premier était semblable à un lion, et avait des ailes d'aigles; je regardai, jusqu'au moment où ses ailes furent arrachées; il fut enlevé de terre et mis debout sur ses pieds comme un homme, et un coeur d'homme lui fut donné.

⁵ Et voici, un second animal était semblable à un ours, et se tenait sur un côté; il avait trois côtes dans la gueule entre les dents, et on lui disait: Lève-toi, mange beaucoup de chair.

⁶ Après cela je regardai, et voici, un autre était semblable à un léopard, et avait sur le dos quatre ailes comme un oiseau; cet animal avait quatre têtes, et la domination lui fut donnée.

⁷ Après cela, je regardai pendant mes visions nocturnes, et voici, il y avait un quatrième animal, terrible, épouvantable et extraordinairement fort; il avait de grandes dents de fer, il mangeait, brisait, et il foulait aux pieds ce qui restait; il était différent de tous les animaux précédents, et il avait dix cornes.

⁸ Je considérai les cornes, et voici, une autre petite corne sortit du milieu d'elles, et trois des premières cornes furent arrachées devant cette corne; et voici, elle avait des yeux comme des yeux d'homme, et une bouche, qui parlait avec arrogance.

⁹ Je regardai, pendant que l'on plaçait des trônes. Et l'ancien des jours s'assit. Son vêtement était blanc comme la neige, et les cheveux de sa tête étaient comme de la laine pure; son trône était comme des flammes de feu, et les roues comme un feu ardent.

¹⁰ Un fleuve de feu coulait et sortait de devant lui. Mille milliers le servaient, et dix mille millions se tenaient en sa présence. Les juges s'assirent, et les livres furent ouverts.

¹¹ Je regardai alors, à cause des paroles arrogantes que prononçait la corne; et tandis que je regardais, l'animal fut tué, et son corps fut anéanti, livré au feu pour être brûlé.

¹² Les autres animaux furent dépouillés de leur puissance, mais une prolongation de vie leur fut accordée jusqu'à un certain temps.

¹³ Je regardai pendant mes visions nocturnes, et voici, sur les nuées des cieux arriva quelqu'un de semblable à un fils de l'homme; il s'avança vers l'ancien des jours, et on le fit approcher de lui.

¹⁴ On lui donna la domination, la gloire et le règne; et tous les peuples, les nations, et les hommes de toutes langues le servirent. Sa domination est une domination éternelle qui ne passera point, et son règne ne sera jamais détruit.

¹⁵ Moi, Daniel, j'eus l'esprit troublé au dedans de moi, et les visions de ma tête m'effrayèrent.

¹⁶ Je m'approchai de l'un de ceux qui étaient là, et je lui demandai ce qu'il y avait de vrai dans toutes ces choses. Il me le dit, et m'en donna l'explication:

¹⁷ Ces quatre grands animaux, ce sont quatre rois qui s'élèveront de la terre;

¹⁸ mais les saints du Très-Haut recevront le royaume, et ils posséderont le royaume éternellement, d'éternité en éternité.

¹⁹ Ensuite je désirai savoir la vérité sur le quatrième animal, qui était différent de tous les autres, extrêmement terrible, qui avait des dents de fer et des ongles d'airain, qui mangeait, brisait, et foulait aux pieds ce qui restait;

²⁰ et sur les dix cornes qu'il avait à la tête, et sur l'autre qui était sortie et devant laquelle trois étaient tombées, sur cette corne qui avait des yeux, une bouche parlant avec arrogance, et une plus grande apparence que les autres.

²¹ Je vis cette corne faire la guerre aux saints, et l'emporter sur eux,

²² jusqu'au moment où l'ancien des jours vint donner droit aux saints du Très-Haut, et le temps arriva où les saints furent en possession du royaume.

²³ Il me parla ainsi: Le quatrième animal, c'est un quatrième royaume qui existera sur la terre, différent de tous les royaumes, et qui dévorera toute la terre, la foulera et la brisera.

²⁴ Les dix cornes, ce sont dix rois qui s'élèveront de ce royaume. Un autre s'élèvera après eux, il sera différent des premiers, et il abaissera trois rois.

²⁵ Il prononcera des paroles contre le Très-Haut, il opprimera les saints du Très Haut, et il espérera changer les temps et la loi; et les saints seront livrés entre ses mains pendant un temps, des temps, et la moitié d'un temps.

²⁶ Puis viendra le jugement, et on lui ôtera sa domination, qui sera détruite et anéantie pour jamais.

²⁷ Le règne, la domination, et la grandeur de tous les royaumes qui sont sous les cieux, seront donnés au peuple des saints du Très-Haut. Son règne est un règne éternel, et tous les dominateurs le serviront et lui obéiront.

²⁸ Ici finirent les paroles. Moi, Daniel, je fus extrêmement troublé par mes pensées, je changeai de couleur, et je conservai ces paroles dans mon coeur.

¹ Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

² My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall condense as the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.

³ For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God!

⁴ The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.

⁵ They have dealt corruptly with him, [they are] not his children, [it is] their blemish. [They are] a perverse and crooked generation.

⁶ Do you thus requite Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you.

⁷ Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸ When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.

⁹ For Yahweh's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

¹⁰ He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.

¹¹ As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.

¹² Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.

¹³ He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;

¹⁴ Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.

¹⁵ But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶ They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]. They provoked him to anger with abominations.

¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons, [which were] no God, to gods that they didn't know, to new [gods] that came up of late, which your fathers didn't dread.

¹⁸ Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

¹⁹ Yahweh saw [it], and abhorred [them], because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

²⁰ He said, "I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.

²¹ They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

²² For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.

²³ "I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.

²⁴ [They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.

²⁵ Outside the sword shall bereave, and in the rooms, terror; on both young man and virgin, The nursing infant with the gray-haired man.

²⁶ I said, I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;

²⁷ were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, 'Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.'"

²⁸ For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.

²⁹ Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

³⁰ How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?

³¹ For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

³² For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter.

³³ Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps.

³⁴ "Isn't this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?

³⁵ Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things that are to come on them shall make haste."

³⁶ For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that [their] power is gone, There is none [remaining], shut up or left at large.

³⁷ He will say, "Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge;

³⁸ Which ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection.

³⁹ "See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.

⁴⁰ For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,

⁴¹ if I whet my glittering sword, My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my adversaries, and will recompense those who hate me.

⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy."

⁴³ Rejoice, you nations, [with] his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries, And will make expiation for his land, for his people.

⁴⁴ Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

⁴⁵ Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel;

⁴⁶ He said to them, "Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, [even] all the words of this law.

⁴⁷ For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it."

⁴⁸ Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,

⁴⁹ "Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession;

⁵⁰ and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people:

⁵¹ because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel.

⁵² For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel."