Daniel 8:1–12

Daniel’s Vision of a Ram and a Goat

8In the third year that Belshazzar was king, I saw a second vision.^{p 2}In the vision I suddenly found myself in the walled city of Susa in the province of Elam. I was standing by the River Ulai, ³and there beside the river I saw a ram that had two long horns, one of which was longer and newer than the other. ⁴I watched the ram butting with his horns to the west, the north, and the south. No animal could stop him or escape his power. He did as he pleased and grew arrogant.

⁵While I was wondering what this meant, a goat came rushing out of the west, moving so fast that his feet didn’t touch the ground. He had one prominent horn between his eyes. ⁶He came towards the ram, which I had seen standing beside the river, and rushed at him with all his force. ⁷I watched him attack the ram. He was so angry that he smashed into him and broke the two horns. The ram had no strength to resist. He was thrown to the ground and trampled on, and there was no one who could save him.

⁸The goat grew more and more arrogant, but at the height of his power his horn was broken. In its place four prominent horns came up, each pointing in a different direction. ⁹Out of one of these four horns grew a little horn, whose power extended towards the south and the east and towards the Promised Land. ^10*It grew strong enough to attack the army of heaven, the stars themselves, and it threw some of them to the ground and trampled on them. ¹¹It even defied the Prince of the heavenly army, stopped the daily sacrifices offered to him, and desecrated the Temple. ¹²People sinned there instead of offering the proper daily sacrifices,^q and true religion was thrown to the ground. The horn was successful in everything it did.