1The man said: ‘In the first year after Darius, the man from the land of Media, had become king, it was my work to help and protect him. 2What I am telling you now will happen. There are another 3 kings who will rule over Persia. The 4th king will have a lot of money. He will be richer than all the other kings. And because he is rich, he will get a lot of soldiers and his army will be strong when he goes to war_against the kingdom of Greece. 3But there will come a king who is a good soldier. He will rule over a lot of people and he will do what he wants to do. 4He will not rule for a long time, and after him there will be 4 kings, a king in the east, one in the south, one in the west and one in the north. These kings will not be his sons and they will not be as strong as he was.’
The kings of the south and the north
5‘The king of the south will be strong, but one of his officials will become stronger and he will rule over a lot of people and he will become king of the north. 6Later, these 2 kings will make an agreement and a daughter of the king of the south will marry the king of the north to show that the 2 kings have made an agreement. But this will not help the king of the south. The daughter and the people who went with her will die, and also her father and her husband to whom she was married.
7One of the sons of the king of the south will become king after his father. He will go to war_against the new king of the north and he will come into the city with strong walls and defeat them. 8He will take the images of their idols to Egypt, and also all their beautiful things of silver and gold. For a long time he will not go to war_against the king of the north. 9Then the king of the north will come to attack the king of the south, but he will lose and he will have to go back to his own land.
10Then the sons of the king of the north will get a lot of soldiers and the king with all these soldiers will come like a water flood that flows over everything. He will attack the king of the south in the city with strong walls. 11And then the king of the south will become very angry. He will fight against the king of the north and he will defeat him and kill a lot of his soldiers. 12And after he has won, he will become proud and kill a lot of people, 10s of thousands of them. But he will not stay strong. 13The king of the north will go back home and he will get even more soldiers. After a long time he will come again, with a lot of soldiers and weapons.
14At that time a lot of people will no longer want to serve the king of the south. Daniel, some people of your nation will also want to stop serving him. They will rebel_against him and try to become free, but the king will kill them.
15The king of the north will come and he will build a ramp against the strong walls around the city of the king of the south. Then his soldiers will climb over the walls and get into the city. The king of the south and all his soldiers will not be able to stop the king of the north. 16The king of the north will defeat them and do what he wants. No one will stop him. He will also take the Beautiful_Land for himself and he will destroy it. 17Then he will try to make an agreement with the king of the south and he will give one of his daughters to the king of the south to be his wife, but his plan will be to take the land for himself. His plan will not work. He will not succeed.
18Then the proud king of the north will go to war_against the people who live near the sea and he will defeat a lot of people. But another leader will go to war_against the proud king of the north and he will defeat the proud king and humiliate him. 19Then that leader will go back to his own land, to his cities that have strong walls. But someone else will defeat him in war and he will disappear. 20After him another king will come. He will send people to collect taxes so that he can live like a king. Someone will kill that king, but not in war.’
The bad king from the north
21The man said: ‘Then a bad person will become king of the north. He will not be a son of a king, but he will become king because he is cunning. 22He will kill the leaders who want to fight against him, and also the leader of God's people. 23This bad person will be the leader of only a few people, but he will make agreements with a lot of people and he will break a lot of agreements. That is why he will become a strong leader.
24He will go into a land where there are a lot of rich people, and no one will be able to stop him. He will do what the kings before him have not done. He will take all the plunder there and he will give it to his people. He will make clever plans when he goes to war_against the cities that have strong walls, but he will do that for only a short while.
25Then he will bring a lot of soldiers and go to war_against the king of the south, but the king of the south will get even more soldiers. He will have a very strong army. But he will lose the war because one of his own people will betray him. 26The people in his own home will make him lose the war. His soldiers will run away and a lot of his soldiers will die. 27The 2 kings will eat together, but they will lie to each other and they will make plans to do something bad to each other. They will not be able to do what they want to do because God has decided that they will no longer be kings.
28The king of the north will go back to his land and he will take a lot of things with him. He will attack the holy people with whom God has made a covenant, and then he will go back to his land.
29When God decides that the time is right, the king of the north will go to the south again, but it will not be as before. 30The Romans will come in boats and make war_against the king of the north and he will become afraid and go back to his land. But on his way he will again do bad things to the holy people with whom God has made a covenant. He will be friendly to the people who are unfaithful to God's covenant. 31He will send soldiers and they will make the temple impure. He will tell the priests not to bring offerings every day. He will put something in the temple that will make God very angry and it will destroy everything. 32The king will be very friendly to people who do wrong against the covenant, but the people who know God will keep on doing what is right. They will not do what that king says.
33The wise leaders of the nation will help many people to understand what happened, but the king will kill some of the leaders and burn them. He will also take away some of the leaders to his land. 34There will be only a few people who will help the leaders and a lot of people will pretend to help the leaders, but they will be false. 35Some of the wise leaders will suffer and that is how God will purify them so that they will be right at the end of time, on the day that God has decided.
36The king will do what he wants. He will think he is more important than a god and he will also say bad things against the only true God. He will do what he wants while God is angry with his people. God has decided that it must happen and it will happen. 37The king will serve other gods, not the gods that the kings who ruled before him served. He will also not serve the god that the women love. He will not serve one of those gods. 38No, the king will serve a god that the other kings who ruled before him did not know. This is the god of the cities that have strong walls. The king will give gifts to this god, gold, silver, beautiful stones and other expensive gifts. 39The king will think that this other god is helping him and he will go to war_against the cities that have strong walls. The king will be very good to everyone who serves this god. He will appoint them as rulers over many people and he will give them lands.
40Later, the king of the south will go to war_against the king of the north. But the king of the north will bring a lot of war-chariots and soldiers on horses and on boats, and they will run over the land like a water flood. 41He will go into the Beautiful_Land and he will kill a lot of people. But he will not take the land of Edom or the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.
42The king of the north will defeat a lot of lands and he will also take the land of Egypt. 43The king of the north will take all Egypt's beautiful gold and silver things for himself. He will also defeat the people of the land of Libya and the people in the land of Cush. 44But then he will get bad news from the east and north. He will become afraid and angry and he will go back to kill a lot of people. 45He will put up his tents between the big sea and the beautiful mountain of Zion where the temple is. But he will die there and no one will help him.’
