Daniel 11

The kings of the north and the south

¹“In the first year of Darius the Mede, I myself took my stand to support and strengthen him.^{a 2}Now I will tell you what is true. Three more kings will come to power in Persia, and a fourth will become far richer than any of them. Once his riches have made him strong, he will rouse everyone against the kingdom of Greece. ³Then a mighty king will arise who will rule a vast empire and do whatever he wants. ⁴But at the height of his power his kingdom will be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven. His descendants will not inherit it, and it will not have the power he had, for his kingdom will be uprooted and given to others. ⁵The king of the south will become strong, and so will one of his officials, who will grow even stronger than he is and will rule; his empire will be great.^{b 6}After some years they will become allies. The king of the south will send his daughter to the king of the north to seal an agreement, but she will not keep her power, and he and his power will not last. She will be handed over, together with her escort, her father, and the one who supported her in those days.^{cd 7}One from her family line will rise up in his place. He will attack the army of the king of the north, enter his fortress, fight against them and win. ⁸He will also carry off to Egypt their gods, their metal images and their precious objects of silver and gold. For some years he will leave the king of the north alone. ⁹Then the king of the north will invade the realm of the king of the south, but will go back to his own country. ¹⁰His sons will prepare for war and gather a great army. One of them will advance like a flood and sweep through, and then again carry the war as far as the enemy’s fortress. ¹¹Then the king of the south will be enraged and will march out to fight against the king of the north, who will raise a great army; but that army will be defeated by the king of the south. ¹²When the army has been carried off, the king of the south will become proud and will kill tens of thousands, but he will not remain strong. ¹³For the king of the north will again raise an army, larger than the first, and after a period of years he will come on with a huge, well-equipped army. ¹⁴In those times many will rise against the king of the south. Violent men among your own people will rebel in an attempt to fulfill the vision, but they will fail.^{e 15}Then the king of the north will come, build siege ramps and capture a fortified city. The forces of the south will be unable to resist; even their best troops will not have the strength to stand. ¹⁶The invader will do as he pleases, and no one will be able to stand against him. He will take his stand in the beautiful land, with the power to destroy it. ¹⁷He will make up his mind to come with the full strength of his kingdom, and he will come to terms with the king of the south. He will give him a young woman as his wife, so as to destroy the kingdom, but the plan will not succeed or help him. ¹⁸Then he will turn to the coastlands and take many of them. But a commander will stop his arrogance and turn his arrogance back on him. ¹⁹After this he will head back to the strongholds of his own country, but he will stumble and fall and be seen no more. ²⁰His successor will send out a tax collector to maintain the splendor of his kingdom. But within a few years he will be destroyed, though not in anger or in battle. ²¹In his place a contemptible man will rise to power, one who was not given the royal honor. He will come in when people feel secure and seize the kingdom through intrigue.^{f 22}Armies will be swept away before him like a flood and destroyed, and so will a leader of the covenant. ²³After an alliance is made with him, he will act deceitfully, and with only a small following he will rise to power. ²⁴When the richest parts of the province feel secure, he will invade them and do what neither his fathers nor his forefathers ever did. He will hand out plunder, spoil and wealth to his followers, and he will plot against fortresses, but only for a time. ²⁵He will rouse his strength and courage against the king of the south with a large army. The king of the south will go to war with a very large and powerful army, but he will not be able to stand, because of the plots made against him. ²⁶Those who eat at his table will bring about his downfall. His army will be swept away, and many will fall in battle. ²⁷Both kings, with their hearts set on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but it will come to nothing, for the end will still come at the appointed time. ²⁸The king of the north will return to his own country with great wealth, but his heart will be against the holy covenant, and he will act against it before returning to his own land. ²⁹At the appointed time he will come back and invade the south, but the outcome will not be what it was the first time. ³⁰Ships of Kittim will oppose him, and he will lose heart. He will turn back in fury against the holy covenant and take action. Back home, he will favor those who forsake the holy covenant.^{g 31}His forces will rise up and desecrate the sanctuary, the fortress. They will abolish the regular offering and set up the abomination that brings ruin. ³²Those who violate the covenant he will corrupt by flattery, but the people who know their God will stand firm and take action. ³³The wise among the people will instruct many. But for a time they will fall by the sword and by fire, by captivity and by plunder. ³⁴When they fall, they will receive a little help, and many will join them who are not sincere. ³⁵Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, cleansed and made white until the time of the end, for the end will still come at the appointed time. ³⁶The king will do whatever he wants. He will exalt himself and make himself greater than every god, and he will say outrageous things against the God of gods. He will succeed until the time of wrath is over, for what has been decided will be done.^{h 37}He will show no regard for the gods of his ancestors, or for the god women love, or for any other god, for he will exalt himself above them all.^{i 38}Instead, he will honor a god of fortresses, a god his ancestors did not know. He will honor him with gold and silver, precious stones and costly gifts. ³⁹With the help of a foreign god he will attack the strongest fortresses. Those who acknowledge him he will greatly honor; he will make them rulers over many people and give them land as a reward.^{j 40}When the time of the end comes, the king of the south will attack him, and the king of the north will rush against him like a storm with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood.^{k 41}He will also invade the beautiful land, and many will fall. But Edom, Moab and the leaders of the Ammonites will escape from his power. ⁴²He will reach out his power against many countries, and Egypt will not escape. ⁴³He will take control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, and the Libyans and Cushites will follow in his train. ⁴⁴But he will be alarmed by news from the east and the north, and he will set out in a great rage to destroy and wipe out many. ⁴⁵He will set up his royal tents between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, with no one to help him.