1. And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood to encourage and to strengthen him.
2. And now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall yet be three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall obtain far greater riches than they all; and by his strengthening himself with his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.
3. And a valiant king shall stand up, that shall rule over a great dominion and do according to his will.
4. But when he is reigning, his kingdom shall be broken and shall be divided by the four winds of heaven, and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion by which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.
5. And the king of the south, {this Hebrew word is identified with the people of God}, and of his principalities, shall make himself strong; and he shall exceed him and make himself powerful; his dominion shall be a great dominion.
6. But at the end of some years they shall join themselves together; for the king’s daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement, but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm; for she shall be given up and those that brought her and he that begat her, and those that were for her in this time.
7. But of the new shoot from her roots shall one stand up upon his throne and shall come unto the army and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north and do in them according to his will and shall prevail:
8. and even their gods, with their princes, with their precious vessels of silver and of gold, shall be taken captive in Egypt; and for some years he shall maintain himself against the king of the north.
9. Thus shall the king of the south enter into the kingdom and return to his own land.
10. But the sons of that one shall be stirred up and shall assemble a multitude of great armies and shall come in great haste, and overflow and pass through and turn and come with wrath unto his fortress.
11. Therefore the king of the south shall become furious and shall come forth and fight with him even with the king of the north; and he shall put a great multitude into the field, but all that multitude shall be given into his hand.
12. Therefore the multitude shall be filled with pride, his heart shall be lifted up, and he shall cast down many thousands, but he shall not prevail.
13. And the king of the north shall put another multitude greater than the former in the field and at the end of a time of some years shall come in great haste with a great army and with much riches.
14. But in those times many shall stand up against the king of the south, and sons of robbers of thy people shall raise themselves up to establish the vision, but they shall fall.