1And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to strengthen and to be a stronghold to him.
2And now I will declare to you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall stand up for Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than all; and when he is strong in his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece.
3And a mighty king shall stand up, and rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.
4And when he has stood up, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four spirits (ruach) of the heavens, but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be uprooted, even for others besides these.
5And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be stronger than him and rule, his dominion a great dominion.
6And at the end of years they shall join themselves together, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make agreements; but she shall not retain the strength of the arm, neither shall he stand, nor his arm; and she shall be given up, she and those who brought her, and he who begot her, and he who strengthened her in those times.
7But one shall stand up from a shoot of her roots in his place, and he shall come to the army, and enter into the stronghold of the king of the north, and act against them, and prevail.
8And also their gods, with their molten images, with the precious vessels of their silver and gold, he shall bring into captivity to Egypt; and he shall stand for some years away from the king of the north.
9And he shall come into the kingdom of the king of the south, but he shall return to his own ground (adamah).
10And his sons shall stir themselves up and gather a multitude of great forces; and one shall surely come, and overflow, and pass through; and he shall return and stir himself up, even to his stronghold.
11And the king of the south shall be enraged, and go forth 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.
12And the multitude shall be carried away, and his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail.
13And the king of the north shall return and raise a multitude greater than the former; and at the end of the times, of years, he shall surely come with a great army and with much substance.
14And in those times many shall stand up against the king of the south; and the sons of the violent of your people shall lift themselves up to establish a vision, but they shall stumble.
15And the king of the north shall come, and cast up a siege-mound, and capture a fortified city; and the arms of the south shall not stand, nor his chosen people, and there shall be no strength to stand.
16And he who comes against him shall do according to his will, and there shall be none standing before him; and he shall stand in the land of beauty, and destruction shall be in his hand.
17And he shall set his face to come with the strength of all his kingdom, and upright ones with him, and he shall act; and the daughter of women he shall give to him, to corrupt it, but it shall not stand, nor be for him.
18And he shall set his face to the coastlands, and capture many; but a commander shall make his reproach to cease for him; nay, his reproach he shall return to him.
19And he shall turn his face to the strongholds of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.
20And one shall stand in his place who causes an exactor to pass through the glory of the kingdom; but within few days he shall be broken, and not in anger, nor in battle.
21And in his place shall stand a despised one, upon whom they had not conferred the majesty of the kingdom; but he shall come in security, and seize the kingdom by smooth words.
22And the arms of the flood shall be flooded away from before him, and shall be broken; and also the prince of the covenant (berit).
23And from the joining with him he shall work deceit, and he shall come up and become strong with a little nation.
24In security he shall come even into the fattest parts of the province, and he shall do what his fathers did not do, nor his fathers' fathers; prey and spoil and substance he shall scatter among them; and against fortresses he shall devise his devices, even for a time.
25And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall stir himself up to battle with an exceedingly great and mighty army; but he shall not stand, for they shall devise devices against him.
26And those who eat of his food shall break him, and his army shall overflow, and many shall fall down slain.
27And both these kings — their heart shall be for evil, and at one table they shall speak a lie; but it shall not prosper, for the end is yet for the appointed time (moed).
28And he shall return to his land with great substance, and his heart shall be against the covenant (berit) of holiness; and he shall act, and return to his land.
29At the appointed time (moed) he shall return and come into the south; but it shall not be in the latter as in the former.
30For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be disheartened, and he shall return and be indignant against the covenant (berit) of holiness; and he shall act, and return, and give heed to those who forsake the covenant (berit) of holiness.
31And arms shall stand from him, and they shall profane the sanctuary, the stronghold, and take away the continual, and set up the detestable thing that desolates.
32And those who do wickedly against the covenant (berit) he shall corrupt by smooth words; but the people who know their God shall be strong and act.
33And those who are wise among the people shall make the many understand; yet they shall stumble by sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, for days.
34And when they stumble, they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall join themselves to them with smooth words.
35And some of those who are wise shall stumble, to refine among them, and to purify, and to make white, until the time of the end; for it is yet for the appointed time (moed).
36And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and against the God of gods he shall speak wondrous things; and he shall prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is determined shall be done.
37And to the gods of his fathers he shall give no heed, nor to the desire of women, nor to any god shall he give heed, for above all he shall magnify himself.
38But to the god of strongholds in his place he shall give honor; even a god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver and with precious stones and costly things.
39And he shall deal with the fortresses of strongholds with a foreign god; whoever acknowledges him he shall increase with glory, and cause them to rule over many, and divide the ground (adamah) for a price.
40And at the time of the end the king of the south shall push at him, and the king of the north shall storm against him with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships; and he shall come into the lands, and overflow and pass through.
41And he shall come into the land of beauty, and many shall stumble; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom and Moab and the chief of the sons of Ammon.
42And he shall stretch out his hand against the lands, and the land of Egypt shall not be an escape.
43And he shall rule over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Cushites shall be at his steps.
44But reports from the east and from the north shall terrify him, and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and to devote many to destruction.
45And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the holy mountain of beauty; but he shall come to his end, and there is none helping him.