World English Bible · The Persian return
Daniel 11
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"As for me, in the first year of , I stood up to confirm and strengthen him. "Now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings will stand up in . The fourth will be far richer than all of them. When he has grown strong through his riches, he will stir up all against the realm of . A mighty king will stand up, who will rule with great , and do according to his will. When he stands up, will be broken and will be divided toward the four winds of , but not to his posterity, nor according to his with which he ruled; for will be plucked up, even for others besides these. "The king of the south will be strong. One of his princes will become stronger than him, and . His will be a great . At the end of years they will join themselves together; and the daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to make an agreement, but she will not retain the strength of her arm. He will also not stand, nor will his arm; but she will be given up, with those who brought her, and he who became of her, and he who strengthened her in those times. "But out of a shoot from her roots one will stand up in his place, who will come to the army and will enter into the of the king of the north, and will deal against them and will prevail. He will also carry their gods with their , and with their goodly vessels of silver and of gold, into . He will refrain some years from the king of the north. 9He will come into the realm of the king of the south, but he will return into his own land. His sons will wage war, and will assemble a multitude of great forces which will come on, and overflow, and pass through. They will return and wage war, even to his . "The king of the south will be moved with and will come out and fight with him, even with the king of the north. He will send out a great multitude, and will be given into his hand. will be carried off, and will be exalted. He will cast down tens of thousands, but he won't prevail. The king of the north will return, and will send out a multitude greater than the former. He will come on at the end of the times, even of years, with a great army and with abundant supplies. "In those times many will stand up against the king of the south. Also the children of the among your people will lift themselves up to establish the , but they will fall. So the king of the north will come and cast up a mound, and take a well-fortified city. The forces of the south won't stand, neither will his select troops, neither will there be any strength to stand. But he who comes against him will do according to his own will, and no one will stand before him. He will stand in the land, and will be in his hand. He will set to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and with him equitable conditions. He will perform them. He will give him the daughter of women, to destroy , but she will not stand, and won't be for him. After this he will turn to the islands, and will take many, but a prince will cause the offered by him to cease. Yes, moreover, he will cause his to turn on him. Then he will turn toward the fortresses of his own land; but he will stumble and fall, and won't be found. "Then one who will cause a to pass through to maintain its will stand up in his place; but within few days he shall be destroyed, not in , and not in battle. "In his place a contemptible person will stand up, to whom they had not given the of ; but he will come in time of security, and will obtain by flatteries. The overwhelming forces will be overwhelmed from before him, and will be broken. Yes, also the prince of . After the treaty made with him he will work deceitfully; for he will come up and will become strong with few people. In time of security he will come even on the fattest places of the province. He will do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers. He will scatter among them prey, plunder, and wealth. Yes, he will devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time. "He will stir up his and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south will wage war in battle with an exceedingly great and mighty army, but he won't stand; for they will devise plans against him. Yes, those who eat of his delicacies will destroy him, and his army will be swept away. Many will fall down slain. As for both these kings, their will be to do evil, and they will speak lies at one table; but it won't prosper, for the end will still be at the . Then he will return into his land with great wealth. will be against the . He will take action, and return to his own land. "He will return at the and come into the south; but it won't be in the latter time as it was in the former. For ships of will come against him. Therefore he will be grieved, and will return, and have against the , and will take action. He will even return, and have regard to those who forsake the . "Forces from him will profane , even the , and will take away the continual burnt offering. Then they will set up the that makes desolate. He will corrupt those who do wickedly against by flatteries; but the people who know their will be strong and take action. "Those who are among the people will instruct many; yet they will fall and by flame, by and by plunder, many days. Now when they fall, they will be helped with a little help; but many will join themselves to them with flatteries. Some of those who are will fall—to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end, because it is yet for the time appointed. "The king will do according to his will. He will exalt himself and magnify himself above every , and will speak marvelous things against the of gods. He will prosper until the is accomplished, for that which is determined will be done. He won't regard the gods of his fathers, or the of women, or regard any ; for he will magnify himself above all. But in their place, he will the of fortresses. He will a whom his fathers didn't know with gold, silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things. He will deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign . He will increase with whoever acknowledges him. He will cause them to many, and will divide the land for a price. "At the time of the end the king of the south will contend with him; and the king of the north will come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships. He will enter into the countries, and will overflow and pass through. He will enter also into the land, and many countries will be overthrown; but these will be out of his hand: , , and the chief of . He will also stretch out his hand on the countries. The land of won't escape. But he will have over the of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of . The Libyans and the will follow his steps. But news out of the east and out of the north will trouble him; and he will go out with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many. He will plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The Persian return, 539 BC to 332 BC ›
Persia takes Babylon and reverses its policy, sending exiled peoples home to rebuild their temples. Judah returns as a small province, rebuilding under imperial permission rather than independence.
- Persia
- The largest empire the world had yet seen, from the Indus to the Aegean, run through provinces, a royal road, and a postal system. Its policy on conquered peoples was to send them home and fund their temples, in exchange for loyalty and prayers for the king. The Cyrus Cylinder states the policy in Cyrus's own words, and Ezra opens with the same policy applied to Judah.
- Judah
- A small, poor province called Yehud, a fraction of the old kingdom, with a rebuilt temple that made the people who remembered the first one weep. No king, and no prospect of one. Leadership passes to priests and scribes, which shapes everything afterward.
- Greece
- Persia and Greece collide at Marathon and Salamis, Persia loses, and Athens spends the following decades on the Parthenon, tragedy, and Socrates. Herodotus writes the first history in order to explain that war. Then Plato and Aristotle, whose vocabulary the church will still be using at Nicaea eight centuries later.
- Further afield
- Rome throws out its kings and becomes a republic. In India and China this is the age of the Buddha's early followers and of Confucian teaching taking hold. More of what the world still thinks with was invented in this era than in almost any other.