But he responded to Daniel, “I fear my master the king. He is the one who has decided your food and drink. What would happen if he saw that you looked malnourished in comparison to the other young men your age? If that happened, you would endanger my life with the king!”

I listened to his voice, and as I did so I fell into a trance-like sleep with my face to the ground.

Then God made the overseer of the court officials sympathetic to Daniel.

So the warden removed the delicacies and the wine from their diet and gave them a diet of vegetables instead.

The king told them, “I have had a dream, and I am anxious to understand the dream.”

Then I heard a human voice coming from between the banks of the Ulai. It called out, “Gabriel, enable this person to understand the vision.”

Then he said, “I am going to inform you about what will happen in the latter time of wrath, for the vision pertains to the appointed time of the end.

So I turned my attention to the Lord God to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Now I have come to help you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to future days.”

I saw it approaching the ram. It went into a fit of rage against the ram and struck it and broke off its two horns. The ram had no ability to resist it. The goat hurled the ram to the ground and trampled it. No one could deliver the ram from its power.

Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom from your reliable moral standards.

Only I, Daniel, saw the vision; the men who were with me did not see it. On the contrary, they were overcome with fright and ran away to hide.

“Please test your servants for ten days by providing us with some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who are eating the royal delicacies; deal with us in light of what you see.”

At the end of the ten days their appearance was better and their bodies were healthier than all the young men who had been eating the royal delicacies.

I saw that the ram was butting westward, northward, and southward. No animal was able to stand before it, and there was none who could deliver from its power. It did as it pleased and acted arrogantly.

While I, Daniel, was watching the vision, I sought to understand it. Now one who appeared to be a man was standing before me.

I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days. Then I got up and again carried out the king’s business. But I was astonished at the vision, and there was no one to explain it.

“Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day – we have sinned and behaved wickedly.

I looked up and saw a man clothed in linen; around his waist was a belt made of gold from Upaz.