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

²I saw in the vision, and it came about as I looked, that I was in Susa the citadel, which is in Elam the province; and I saw in the vision that I was beside the Ulai river.

³I lifted up my eyes and I saw: and behold, one ram was standing before the river, and it had two horns; and the horns were high, but the one was higher than the second, and the higher one was coming up last.

⁴I saw the ram butting toward the sea, the north, and the south; no living creature could stand before it, and no one could rescue from its hand; it did according to its own pleasure and made itself great.

⁵I was observing, and behold, a male goat of the she-goats was coming from the sunset over the face of all the land, not touching the land; and the male goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes.

⁶It came to the ram that owned the two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran at it in the heat of its strength.

⁷I saw it approaching beside the ram, and it was enraged against him; it struck the ram and broke its two horns, and the ram had no strength to stand before it; it threw him to the land and trampled him, and there was no one rescuing the ram from its hand.

⁸And the male goat of the she-goats made himself exceedingly great; and just as he became mighty, the great horn was broken, and four conspicuous ones came up in its place, toward the four winds of the skies.

⁹And out of one of them came forth one horn, from a small beginning, and it grew great to excess toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Splendid Land.

¹⁰It became great, up to the host of the skies, and it made some of the host and some of the stars fall to the land, and trampled them.

¹¹And up to the commander of the host it made itself great, and from him the regular offering was lifted away, and the established place of his sanctuary was thrown down.

¹²And a host was set against the regular offering in rebellion, and it threw truth down to the land, and it acted and prospered.

¹³And I heard one holy one speaking, and another holy one said to a certain one who was speaking, "How long is the vision — the regular offering and the rebellion that desolates, the giving over of the holy place and the host to be trampled?"

¹⁴And he said to me, "Until two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be put right."

¹⁵And it happened, when I, Daniel, saw the vision and sought understanding, that behold, there stood before me something with the appearance of a man.

¹⁶And I heard a man's voice from between the Ulai, and he called out and said, "Gabriel, make this one understand the vision."

¹⁷So he came beside where I stood; and when he came I was terrified and fell on my face; and he said to me, "Understand, son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end."

¹⁸And while he spoke with me, I fell into a deep sleep on my face to the land; and he touched me and made me stand on the spot where I had been standing.

¹⁹And he said, "Behold, I am making known to you what will be at the final part of the indignation, for it belongs to the appointed time of the end."

²⁰The ram that you saw, the owner of the two horns, stands for the kings of Media and Persia.

²¹And the male goat, the shaggy one, is the king of Greece; and the great horn that is between its eyes is the first king.

²²As for the one that was broken, with four standing up in its place, four kingdoms will arise out of a nation, but not with his strength.

²³And at the end of their kingdom, when the rebels have run their full course, a king will arise, fierce of face and skilled at discerning riddles.

²⁴And his power will grow mighty, but not by his own power; and astonishingly he will ruin, and will succeed, and act; and he will ruin the mighty ones and the people of the holy ones.

²⁵And through his insight he will make deceit succeed in his hand; and in his heart he will make himself great, and in ease he will ruin many; and against the chief of chiefs he will stand, but without a hand he will be broken.

²⁶The vision of the evening and the morning that was told is true; and you, keep the vision secret, for it is for many days.

²⁷And I, Daniel, was spent, and I was sick for days; then I rose and did the work of the king; and I was appalled at the vision, and there was no one who understood.