¹ In the third year of the rule of Belshazzar the king, a vision was seen by me, Daniel, after the one I saw at first.

² And I saw in the vision; and when I saw it, I was in the strong town Shushan, which is in the country of Elam; and in the vision I was by the water-door of the Ulai.

³ And lifting up my eyes, I saw, there before the stream, a male sheep with two horns: and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, the higher one coming up last.

⁴ I saw the sheep pushing to the west and to the north and to the south; and no beasts were able to keep their place before him, and no one was able to get people out of his power; but he did whatever his pleasure was and made himself great.

⁵ And while I was giving thought to this, I saw a he-goat coming from the west over the face of all the earth without touching the earth: and the he-goat had a great horn between his eyes.

⁶ And he came to the two-horned sheep which I saw before the stream, rushing at him in the heat of his power.

⁷ And I saw him come right up to the sheep, and he was moved with wrath against him, attacking the sheep so that his two horns were broken; and the sheep had not strength to keep his place before him, but was pushed down on the earth and crushed under his feet: and there was no one to get the sheep out of his power.

⁸ And the he-goat became very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and in its place came up four other horns turned to the four winds of heaven.

⁹ And out of one of them came another horn, a little one, which became very great, stretching to the south and to the east and to the beautiful land.

¹⁰ And it became great, even as high as the army of heaven, pulling down some of the army, even of the stars, to the earth and crushing them under its feet.

¹¹ It made itself great, even as great as the lord of the army; and by it the regular burned offering was taken away, and the place overturned and the holy place made waste.

¹² ... against the regular burned offering; and ... crushed down to the earth, and it did its pleasure and things went well for it.

¹³ Then there came to my ears the voice of a holy one talking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was talking, How long will the vision be while the regular burned offering is taken away, and the unclean thing causing fear is put up, and the holy place crushed under foot?

¹⁴ And he said to him, For two thousand, three hundred evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be made clean.

¹⁵ And it came about that when I, Daniel, had seen this vision, I had a desire for the sense of it to be unfolded; and I saw one before me in the form of a man.

¹⁶ And the voice of a man came to my ears between the sides of the Ulai, crying out and saying, Gabriel, make the vision clear to this man.

¹⁷ So he came and took his place near where I was; and when he came, I was full of fear and went down on my face: but he said to me, Let it be clear to you, O son of man; for the vision has to do with the time of the end.

¹⁸ Now while he was talking to me, I went into a deep sleep with my face to the earth: but touching me, he put me on my feet where I had been.

¹⁹ And he said, See, I will make clear to you what is to come in the later time of the wrath: for it has to do with the fixed time of the end.

²⁰ The sheep which you saw with two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia.

²¹ And the he-goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn between his eyes is the first king.

²² And as for that which was broken, in place of which four came up, four kingdoms will come up from his nation, but not with his power.

²³ And in the later years of their kingdom, when their evil doings have become complete, there will come up a king full of pride and expert in dark sayings.

²⁴ And his power will be great, and he will be purposing strange things. And all will go well for him and he will do his pleasure; and he will send destruction on the strong ones.

²⁵ And his designs will be turned against the holy people, causing deceit to do well in his hand; in his heart he will make himself great, and send destruction on numbers who are living unconscious of their danger; and he will put himself up against the prince of princes; but he will be broken, though not by men's hands.

²⁶ And the vision of evenings and mornings which has been talked of is true: and keep the vision secret; for it has to do with the far-off future.

²⁷ And I, Daniel, was ill for some days; then I got up and did the king's business: and I was full of wonder at the vision, but no one was able to give the sense of it.

¹ In earlier times he made the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali of small value, but after that he gave it glory, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

² The people who went in the dark have seen a great light, and for those who were living in the land of the deepest night, the light is shining.

³ You have made them very glad, increasing their joy. They are glad before you as men are glad in the time of getting in the grain, or when they make division of the goods taken in war.

⁴ For by your hand the yoke on his neck and the rod on his back, even the rod of his cruel master, have been broken, as in the day of Midian.

⁵ For every boot of the man of war with his sounding step, and the clothing rolled in blood, will be for burning, food for the fire.

⁶ For to us a child has come, to us a son is given; and the government has been placed in his hands; and he has been named Wise Guide, Strong God, Father for ever, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his rule and of peace there will be no end, on the seat of David, and in his kingdom; to make it strong, supporting it with wise decision and righteousness, now and for ever. By the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.

⁸ The Lord has sent a word to Jacob, and it has come on Israel;

⁹ And all the people will have experience of it, even Ephraim and the men of Samaria, who say in the pride of their uplifted hearts,

¹⁰ The bricks have come down, but we will put up buildings of cut stone in their place: the sycamores are cut down, but they will be changed to cedars.

¹¹ For this cause the Lord has made strong the haters of Israel, driving them on to make war against him;

¹² Aram on the east, and the Philistines on the west, who have come against Israel with open mouths. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹³ But the heart of the people was not turned to him who sent punishment on them, and they made no prayer to the Lord of armies.

¹⁴ For this cause the Lord took away from Israel head and tail, high and low, in one day.

¹⁵ The man who is honoured and responsible is the head, and the prophet who gives false teaching is the tail.

¹⁶ For the guides of this people are the cause of their wandering from the right way, and those who are guided by them come to destruction.

¹⁷ For this cause the Lord will have no pleasure in their young men, and no pity on their widows and the children without fathers: for they are all haters of God and evil-doers, and foolish words come from every mouth. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸ For evil was burning like a fire; the blackberries and thorns were burned up; the thick woods took fire, rolling up in dark clouds of smoke.

¹⁹ The land was dark with the wrath of the Lord of armies: the people were like those who take men's flesh for food.

²⁰ On the right a man was cutting off bits and was still in need; on the left a man took a meal but had not enough; no man had pity on his brother; every man was making a meal of the flesh of his neighbour.

²¹ Manasseh was making a meal of Ephraim, and Ephraim of Manasseh; and together they were attacking Judah. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.