Daniel 8–12

Chapter 8

¹In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared unto me, even to me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. ²And I saw in the vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was in the fortress of Shushan, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai. ³And I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns; and the two horns were high; and one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. ⁴I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward, and no beast could stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; and he did according to his will, and became great. ⁵And as I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west over the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. ⁶And he came to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran upon him in the fury of his power. ⁷And I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged with him, and smote the ram, and broke his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him; and he cast him down to the ground, and trampled upon him; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. ⁸And the he-goat became exceeding great; but when he was become strong, the great horn was broken; and in its stead came up four notable ones toward the four winds of the heavens. ⁹And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which became exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the beauty of the earth. ¹⁰And it became great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and trampled upon them. ¹¹(And he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and from him the continual sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. ¹²And a time of trial was appointed unto the continual sacrifice by reason of transgression.) And it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised and prospered. ¹³And I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that one who spoke, How long shall be the vision of the continual sacrifice and of the transgression that maketh desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden down under foot? ¹⁴And he said unto me, Until two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings: then shall the sanctuary be vindicated.

¹⁵And it came to pass, when I Daniel had seen the vision, I sought for the understanding of it, and behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. ¹⁶And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai; and he called and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. ¹⁷And he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was afraid, and fell on my face; and he said unto me, Understand, son of man; for the vision is for the time of the end. ¹⁸Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep stupor, with my face toward the ground. And he touched me, and set me up where I had stood. ¹⁹And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be at the end of the indignation: for at the set time the end shall be. ²⁰The ram that thou sawest having the two horns: they are the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹And the rough goat is the king of Greece; and the great horn that was between his eyes is the first king. ²²Now that being broken, whereas four stood up in its stead, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not with his power. ²³And at the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors shall have come to the full, a king of bold countenance, and understanding riddles, shall stand up. ²⁴And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy marvellously, and shall prosper, and shall practise, and shall destroy the mighty ones, and the people of the saints. ²⁵And through his cunning shall he cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he will magnify himself in his heart, and by prosperity will corrupt many; and he will stand up against the Prince of princes: but he shall be broken without hand. ²⁶And the vision of the evening and the morning which hath been told is true; but close thou up the vision, for it is for many days to come. ²⁷And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days: then I rose up, and did the king’s business. And I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.

Chapter 9

¹In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, ²in the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by the books that the number of the years, whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishment of the desolations of Jerusalem, was seventy years. ³And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes;

⁴and I prayed unto Jehovah my God, and made my confession, and said, Alas Lord! the great and terrible •God, keeping covenant and loving-kindness with them that love him, and that keep his commandments: ⁵we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from thy commandments and from thine ordinances. ⁶And we have not hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, who spoke in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. ⁷Thine, O Lord, is the righteousness, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day, to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, in all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their unfaithfulness in which they have been unfaithful against thee. ⁸O Lord, unto us is confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. ⁹With the Lord our God are mercies and pardons, for we have rebelled against him; ¹⁰and we have not hearkened unto the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us through his servants the prophets. ¹¹And all Israel have transgressed thy law, even turning aside so as not to listen unto thy voice. And the curse hath been poured out upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God: for we have sinned against him. ¹²And he hath performed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; so that there hath not been done under the whole heaven as hath been done upon Jerusalem. ¹³As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us; yet we besought not Jehovah our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. ¹⁴And Jehovah hath watched over the evil, and brought it upon us; for Jehovah our God is righteous in all his works which he hath done; and we have not hearkened unto his voice. ¹⁵—And now, O Lord our God, who broughtest thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made thee a name, as it is this day, —we have sinned, we have done wickedly. ¹⁶Lord, according to all thy righteousnesses, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; for because of our sins, and because of the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all round about us. ¹⁷And now, our God, hearken to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. ¹⁸Incline thine ear, O my God, and hear; open thine eyes and behold our desolations, and the city that is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee because of our righteousnesses, but because of thy manifold mercies. ¹⁹Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, hearken and do! defer not, for thine own sake, O my God! for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

²⁰And whilst I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God; ²¹whilst I was yet speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. ²²And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, Daniel, I am now come forth to make thee skilful of understanding. ²³At the beginning of thy supplications the word went forth, and I am come to declare it; for thou art one greatly beloved. Therefore consider the word, and have understanding in the vision: ²⁴Seventy weeks are apportioned out upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to close the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make expiation for iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal the vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies. ²⁵Know therefore and understand: From the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah, the Prince, are seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street and the moat shall be built again, even in troublous times. ²⁶And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war, —the desolations determined. ²⁷And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations there shall be a desolator, even until that the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate.

Chapter 10

¹In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the…