King James Version · The Persian return
Daniel 8
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
In the third year of the reign of king a appeared unto me, even unto me , after that which appeared unto me at the first. And I saw in a ; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at in the palace, which is in the province of ; and I saw in a , and I was by the river of Ulai. Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two : and the two were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no might stand before him, neither was there any that could out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great. And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable between his eyes. 6And he came to the ram that had two , which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his . And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two : and there was no in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of . And out of one of them came forth a , which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even to ; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily by reason of , and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the concerning the daily , and the of desolation, to give both and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall be cleansed. And it came to pass, when I, even I , had seen the , and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, , make this man to understand the . So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon : but he said unto me, Understand, O : for at the time of the end shall be the . Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright. And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the : for at the time appointed the end shall be. The ram which thou sawest having two are the kings of and . And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his . And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his shall be mighty, but not by his own : and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in , and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. And the of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the ; for it shall be for many days. And I fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the , but none understood it.
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.