However, I will first tell you what is written in a dependable book.<n id="1" /> (There is no one who strengthens me against these princes,<n id="2" /> except Michael your<n id="3" /> prince.

Then there will be a fourth kingdom, one strong like iron. Just like iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and as iron breaks in pieces<n id="1" /> all of these metals,<n id="2" /> so it will break in pieces and crush the others.<n id="3" />

Then those men came by collusion to the king and<n id="1" /> said to him,<n id="2" /> &#8220;Recall,<n id="3" /> O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no edict or decree that the king issues can be changed.&#8221;

The king uttered these words: &#8220;Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal residence<n id="1" /> by my own mighty strength<n id="2" /> and for my majestic honor?&#8221;

<p class="poetry">&#8220;At that time Michael,p> <p class="poetry">the great prince who watches over your people,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">will arise.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">There will be a time of distressp> <p class="poetry">unlike any other from the nation&#8217;s beginning<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">up to that time.p> <p class="poetry">But at that time your own people,p> <p class="poetry">all those whose names are<n id="4" /> found written in the book,p> <p class="poetry">will escape.p>

saying, &#8220;Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, in whom I know there to be a spirit of the holy gods and whom no mystery baffles, consider<n id="1" /> my dream that I saw and set forth its interpretation!

However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries,<n id="1" /> and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the times to come.<n id="2" /> The dream and the visions you had while lying on your bed<n id="3" /> are as follows.p>

In a time of prosperity for the most productive areas of the province he will come and accomplish what neither his fathers nor their fathers accomplished. He will distribute loot, spoils, and property to his followers, and he will devise plans against fortified cities, but not for long.<n id="1" />

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden<n id="2" /> statue made.<n id="3" /> It was ninety feet<n id="4" /> tall and nine feet<n id="5" /> wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Later Daniel entered (whose name is Belteshazzar after the name of my god,<n id="1" /> and in whom there is a spirit of the holy gods). I recounted the dream for him as well,

<p class="bodytext">When the king heard this,<n id="1" /> he was very upset and began thinking about<n id="2" /> how he might rescue Daniel. Until late afternoon<n id="3" /> he was struggling to find a way to rescue him.

But if you can disclose the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts, a reward, and considerable honor. So disclose to me the dream and its interpretation!&#8221;

The vision of the evenings and mornings that was told to you is correct.<n id="1" /> But you should seal up the vision, for it refers to a time many days from now.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;At the time of the end the king of the south will attack<n id="1" /> him. Then the king of the north will storm against him<n id="2" /> with chariots, horsemen, and a large armada of ships.<n id="3" /> He<n id="4" /> will invade lands, passing through them like an overflowing river.<n id="5" />

In that you were seeing feet and toes<n id="1" /> partly of wet clay<n id="2" /> and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom. Some of the strength of iron will be in it, for you saw iron mixed with wet clay.<n id="3" />

So the king assigned them a daily ration<n id="1" /> from his royal delicacies<n id="2" /> and from the wine he himself drank. They were to be trained<n id="3" /> for the next three years. At the end of that time they were to enter the king&#8217;s service.<n id="4" />

However, I have heard<n id="1" /> that you are able to provide interpretations and to decipher knotty problems. Now if you are able to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, you will wear purple and have a golden collar around your neck and be third<n id="2" /> ruler in the kingdom.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;After these things, as I was watching in the night visions<n id="1" /> a fourth beast appeared &#8211; one dreadful, terrible, and very strong.<n id="2" /> It had two large rows<n id="3" /> of iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns.p>

<p class="poetry">Now after the sixty-two weeks,p> <p class="poetry">an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">As for the city and the sanctuary,p> <p class="poetry">the people of the coming prince will destroy<n id="2" /> them.p> <p class="poetry">But his end will come speedily<n id="3" /> like a flood.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Until the end of the war that has been decreedp> <p class="poetry">there will be destruction.p>

yes, while I was still praying,<n id="1" /> the man Gabriel, whom I had seen previously<n id="2" /> in a vision, was approaching me in my state of extreme weariness,<n id="3" /> around the time of the evening offering.