¹And I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, was at my station as his strengthener and stronghold. ²And now I will relate the truth to you. Behold, three kings are still to arise in Persia. And the fourth will accumulate greater wealth than any, and just as he will become strong in his riches, so he will stir everyone up against the kingdom of Greece. ³And a mighty king will arise, and he will rule over a great empire, and he will do as he wishes. ⁴And when he arises, his kingdom will be broken, and it will be divided into the four winds of heaven, but not for his posterity, and not according to his manner of rule by which he ruled, for his kingdom will be plucked up and will be for others – other than these. ⁵And the king of the south will become strong, but one of his princes will become stronger than him, and he will rule. His rule will be a great empire. ⁶And after some years, they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south will go to the king of the north to make a compact, but she will not retain a strong arm, and he will not stand, nor will his arm, and she will be delivered up, as will those who brought her, and he who begot her, and he who strengthened her in those times. ⁷But one from a branch of her roots will assume his role, and he will turn to the army, and he will go to the fortress of the king of the north, and he will engage them and prevail. ⁸And he will also take back to Egypt their gods with their cast images, with their valuable articles of silver and gold which were captured, and he will stand for more years than the king of the north. ⁹So the king of the south will come into a kingdom then return to his territory. ¹⁰And his sons will be provoked, and they will gather a large quantity of powerful forces, and they will come with determination, and they will inundate the place and pass through, then they will return. Then they will be provoked at the fortress. ¹¹And the king of the south will become bitter, and he will go out to wage war against him – against the king of the north – and he will recruit a large multitude, but the multitude will be delivered into his hand. ¹²And he will carry the multitude away; his heart will be exalted, and he will cut down tens of thousands, but he will not gain strength. ¹³Then the king of the north will again recruit a multitude, larger than the first one, and after many vicissitudes and years, he will come with determination, with a great army and with much military equipment. ¹⁴And in those times, many will defend the king of the south, and the violent members of your people will exalt themselves in establishing the vision, but they will fail. ¹⁵And the king of the north will come, and he will cast up a rampart and capture a highly fortified city, and the arms of the south will not stand, nor will his elite people, and they will not have strength to stand. ¹⁶And the one who is coming will do as he wishes, and no-one will stand against him, and he will stand in the Splendid Land, and destructive power will be at his disposal. ¹⁷And he will resolve to come with the might of all his kingdom, and he will settle with equitable terms with him, and he will give him the fairest daughter among women to spoil her, but she will not brook it, and she will not be his. ¹⁸And he will turn his attention to the islands, and he will capture many of them, and a commander will put an end to his reproach for him. Then with no reproach of his, he will turn his attention to him. ¹⁹Then he will turn his attention to the strongholds of his own country, but he will fail and fall, and he will be nowhere to be found. ²⁰Then an oppressor will take on his role, and he will pass through the glorious kingdom. But in a few days he will be crushed, but not by anger and not by war. ²¹Then the despicable one will take on his role, but he will not be invested with the majesty of the kingdom. And he will come calmly, and he will take hold of the kingdom by flatteries. ²²And people will be swept away before him in the arms of a flood, and they will be crushed, as also the leader of the covenant. ²³And he will act deceitfully towards those in league with him, and he will rise and become strong with a small people. ²⁴Calmly and in the fertile parts of the province, he will come and do what neither his fathers nor his father's fathers ever did. He will lavishly distribute booty and spoil and property to them, and he will devise plots against fortifications, which will be for a time. ²⁵Then he will stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south, with a large force. And the king of the south will be provoked into war, with a force large and mighty in the extreme, but he will not prevail, because they will devise plots against him. ²⁶And those who dine with him will cut him to pieces, and his army will swirl around, and many will fall as casualties. ²⁷And the hearts of both kings will be set on wrongdoing, and they will tell lies at one table, but the proceeding will not be successful, for the end will still come in due course. ²⁸Then he will return to his own land with much property, and his heart will be against the holy covenant. Then he will take action and then return to his land. ²⁹In due course he will return and go to the south, but it will not be like the first occasion or the last. ³⁰And ships from Chittim will come against him, and he will be despondent, and he will return, and he will be indignant over the holy covenant, and he will take action. Then he will return and act shrewdly with those who forsake the holy covenant. ³¹And brigades from him will arise and desecrate the sanctuary – the place of strength – and they will put a stop to the perpetual sacrifice, and they will set up the desolating abomination. ³²And he will entice violators of the covenant to profanity with flatteries, but a people who know their God will remain steadfast and take action. ³³And those of the people with insight will explain to many, but they will be brought down by the sword and by the flame, by captivity and by being plundered, for a number of days. ³⁴And as they are brought down, they will be afforded a little help, but many will associate with them with flatteries. ³⁵And some of those enlightened will be brought down, to refine them, and to purify them and to whiten them up to the end time. For it is still a designated time away. ³⁶And the king will do as he wishes, and he will exalt himself and present himself as great – above every god – and he will speak awesomely against the God of gods, and he will prosper until the indignation is ended, for what has been determined will be accomplished. ³⁷And he will not give consideration to the God of his fathers, nor will he give consideration to attraction to women, or give consideration to any god, because he will present himself as greater than all. ³⁸But he will honour the god of strongholds in his role. So he will honour a god whom his fathers did not know, with gold and with silver and with precious gemstones and with valuable items. ³⁹And he will organize fortified strongholds in connection with a foreign god, and whoever has acknowledged him, he will greatly honour, and he will give them rule over many, and he will apportion land at a price. ⁴⁰And at the end time, the king of the south will skirmish with him, and the king of the north will rage against him with chariots and with cavalry and with many ships, and he will enter those countries and will inundate them and pass on. ⁴¹Then he will enter the Splendid Land, and many countries will be brought down, but these will escape from his hand: Edom and Moab and the principal part of the sons of Ammon. ⁴²And he will stretch out his hand in various countries, and the land of Egypt will not have deliverance. ⁴³And he will rule over treasures of gold and silver, and over all the valuable items of Egypt. And Libyans and Ethiopians will follow in his footsteps. ⁴⁴But rumours from the east and from the north will alarm him, and he will set off in great fury to destroy and obliterate many. ⁴⁵And he will pitch the palatial tents between the seas in the holy Splendid Mount, and he will come to his end, with no-one helping him.

Reference(s) in Chapter 11: v.31 ↔ Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14.