Daniel 8

¹ In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me at the beginning.

² I saw in the vision, and as I watched, I was in Susa, the citadel in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision, and I was beside the Ulai Canal.

³ I raised my eyes and looked: there was a ram standing beside the canal, and it had two horns. Both horns were tall, but one was taller than the other, and the taller one grew up last.

⁴ I saw the ram goring westward, northward, and southward. No animal could stand before it, and no one could rescue anything from its power. It did as it pleased and made itself great.

⁵ I was trying to understand, and there was a male goat coming from the west across the whole earth, without touching the ground. The goat had a prominent horn between its eyes.

⁶ It came to the two-horned ram that I had seen standing beside the canal, and charged at it in the fury of its strength.

⁷ I saw it reach the ram. It became furious with it, struck the ram, and broke its two horns. The ram had no strength to stand before it. The goat threw it to the ground and trampled it, and no one could rescue the ram from its power.

⁸ The male goat became very great. But when it had grown strong, the great horn was broken, and four prominent horns grew up in its place, facing the four winds of heaven.

⁹ From one of them came a small horn, which grew very great toward the south, the east, and the Glorious Land.

¹⁰ It grew as high as the army of heaven and threw some of the army and some of the stars down to the ground, and trampled them.

¹¹ It made itself great even against the Prince of the army. The regular offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was thrown down.

¹² An army was handed over, along with the regular offering, because of transgression. The horn cast truth to the ground, acted, and prospered.

¹³ Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who was speaking, “How long will the vision last—the regular offering, the devastating transgression, and the surrender of the holy place and the army to be trampled?”

¹⁴ He said to me, “For two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be restored.”

¹⁵ When I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was trying to understand it, there stood before me someone with the appearance of a man.

¹⁶ I heard a man’s voice from between the banks of the Ulai. He called out and said, “Gabriel, make that one there understand the vision.”

¹⁷ He came near where I was, and when he arrived, I was terrified and fell facedown. He said to me, “Understand, son of man, that the vision concerns the time of the end.”

¹⁸ While he was speaking to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and set me upright where I was.

¹⁹ He said, “I am going to make known to you what will happen at the end of the wrath, because this concerns the appointed time of the end.

²⁰ The ram you saw, the one with two horns, represents the kings of Media and Persia.

²¹ The shaggy male goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn between its eyes is the first king.

²² The horn that was broken, and the four that rose in its place, are four kingdoms that will rise from his nation, but without his strength.

²³ At the end of their kingdoms, when the transgressors have reached their full measure, a king with a stern face, skilled in riddles, will arise.

²⁴ His power will be great, but not by his own strength. He will cause terrifying destruction, succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people of the holy ones.

²⁵ Through his cunning, deceit will prosper in his hand. He will make himself great in his heart, and in a time of security he will destroy many. He will rise against the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without a hand laid on him.

²⁶ The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been told is true. But keep the vision secret, because it concerns many days from now.”

²⁷ I, Daniel, was exhausted and ill for days. Then I got up and attended to the king’s affairs. But I was appalled by the vision, and no one understood it.

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