King James Version · The Persian return
Daniel 7
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In the first year of king of had a and of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the , and told the sum of the matters. spake and said, I saw in my by night, and, behold, the four winds of the strove upon the great sea. And four great came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s : I beheld till the thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much . After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four of a fowl; had also four heads; and was given to it. After this I saw in the night , and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the that were before it; and it had ten . I considered the , and, behold, there came up among them another , before whom there were three of the first plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this were eyes like the eyes of man, and a speaking great things. I beheld till the were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his was like the flame, and his wheels as burning . A stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which spake: I beheld even till was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the , they had their taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. I saw in the night , and, behold, one like came with the clouds of , and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him , and , and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and , should him: his is an , which shall not pass away, and that which shall not be destroyed. I was grieved in in the midst of my body, and the of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the of the things. These great , which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But of shall take , and possess for ever, even . Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; And of the ten that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that that had eyes, and a that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same made war with , and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and was given to of ; and the time came that . Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall three kings. And he shall speak great words against , and shall wear out of , and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the shall sit, and they shall take away his , to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And and , and the greatness of under the whole , shall be given to the people of of , whose kingdom is an kingdom, and all dominions shall and him. Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me , my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.