Daniel 8

¹ In the third year of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that originally appeared to me.

² I gazed at the vision, and as I gazed I found myself in Susa,[*a] the citadel in the province of Elam; gazing at the vision I found myself at the Gate of the Ulai.

³ I raised my eyes to look round me, and I saw a ram standing in front of the river. It had two horns; both were tall, but one taller than the other, and the one that rose the higher was the second.

⁴ I saw the ram thrust westwards, northwards and southwards. No animal could stand up to it, nothing could escape it. It did as it pleased and grew very powerful.

⁵ This is what I observed: a he-goat came from the west, having covered the entire earth but without touching the ground, and between its eyes the goat had one majestic horn.

⁶ It advanced towards the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the river, and charged at it with all the fury of its might.

⁷ I saw it reach the ram, and it was so enraged with the ram, it knocked it down, breaking both its horns, and the ram had not the strength to resist; it felled it to the ground and trampled it underfoot; no one was there to save the ram.

⁸ Then the he-goat grew more powerful than ever, but at the height of its strength the great horn snapped, and in its place sprouted four majestic horns, pointing to the four winds of heaven.

⁹ From one of these, the small one, sprang a horn which grew to great size towards south and east and towards the Land of Splendour.[*b]

¹⁰ It grew right up to the armies of heaven and flung armies and stars to the ground, and trampled them underfoot.

¹¹ It even challenged the power of that army’s Prince; it abolished the perpetual sacrifice and overthrew the foundation of his sanctuary,

¹² and the army too; it put iniquity on the sacrifice and flung truth to the ground; the horn was active and successful.

¹³ I heard a holy one speaking, and another who said to the speaker, ‘How long is this vision to be-of perpetual sacrifice, disastrous iniquity, of sanctuary and army trampled underfoot?’

¹⁴ The first replied, ‘Until two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings have gone by: then the sanctuary shall have its rights restored’.

¹⁵ As I, Daniel, gazed at the vision and tried to understand it, I saw someone standing before me who looked like a man.

¹⁶ I heard a man’s voice cry over the Ulai, ‘Gabriel, tell him the meaning of the vision!’

¹⁷ He approached the place where I was standing; as he approached I was seized with terror, and fell prostrate. ‘Son of man,’ he said to me ‘understand this: the vision shows the time of the End.’

¹⁸ He was still speaking, when I fell senseless to the ground. He touched me, however, and raised me to my feet.

¹⁹ ‘Come,’ he said ‘I will tell you what is going to happen when the wrath comes to an end; this concerns the appointed End.

²⁰ As for the ram that you saw, its two horns are the kings of Media and of Persia.

²¹ The hairy he-goat is the king of Javan, the large horn between its eyes is the first king.[*c]

²² The horn that snapped and the four horns that sprouted in its place are four kingdoms rising from his nation but not having his power.

²³ ‘And at the end of their reign, when the measure of their sins is full, a king will arise, a proud-faced, ingenious-minded man.

²⁴ His power will gather strength – but not through power of his own – he will plot incredible schemes, he will succeed in what he undertakes, he will destroy powerful men and the people of the saints.

²⁵ Such will be his resourcefulness of mind that all his treacherous activities will succeed. He will grow arrogant of heart, take many unawares and destroy them. He will challenge the power of the Prince of princes but, no hand intervening,[*d] shall himself be broken.

²⁶ This explanation of the vision of the mornings and the evenings is true, but you must keep the vision secret, for there are still many days to go.’

²⁷ At this I, Daniel, lost consciousness; I was ill for several days. Then I got up to discharge my duties in the king’s service, keeping the vision a secret, and not understanding what it meant.