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Daniel 11

11 I myself helped and protected Michael during the first year that Darius the Mede was king.

2 And now I will tell you what will surely happen in the future. Pay attention. Three more kings will rule Persia, and then there will be a fourth king who will be much richer than the others. Because he will be so rich, he will be able to assemble a great army from throughout his empire to attack the kingdom of Javan.

3 Then there will be a king who is very powerful. He will reign over a very large empire. He will do whatever he wants to do. 4 But while he is still powerful, he will die. His kingdom will break up into four parts. Men who are not his descendants will rule those parts. They will not be as powerful as he was as a king. That is because his empire will be like a plant that someone has pulled out of the ground. Other people will rule its parts. 5 The king who rules the southern part will become very powerful. But one of the military commanders of the great king who died will become more powerful than him. He will become a king, and he will rule a large empire in the north. 6 After many years, the southern king and the northern king will become allies. To make a peace treaty, the southern king will allow the northern king to marry his daughter. But she will not be the queen for very long. Her husband, the northern king, will not continue to rule. People will kill her, her child, her husband, and the officials who brought her from the southern kingdom.

7 But then a member of her family will become the next southern king. He will lead his army to attack the northern army, and he will defeat them when they fight. He will conquer the capital city of the northern kingdom. 8 He will also take away the idols that represent their gods and their gold and silver treasures. He will bring them back to Egypt with him. For the next several years he will not attack the northern king. 9 Then the northern king will invade the southern kingdom. But he will lose the battle and have to retreat to his own kingdom. 10 But his sons who rule after him will prepare to attack the southern kingdom again. They will gather a very large army. As that army marches south, it will cover the land like a huge flood. After some fighting, there will be a truce, but then the northern army will attack again. It will conquer a city that has strong walls around it.

11 This will make the southern king very angry. He will lead his army to fight against the northern king. The northern king will gather a great army, but the southern king will defeat that great army. 12 When his soldiers destroy the northern army, they will kill tens of thousands of its soldiers. This will make the southern king very proud. But his army will not continue to win battles. 13 Instead, the northern king will prepare to fight again. He will gather an even bigger army than the one that he had before. After several years, he will invade the southern kingdom with a large army that has much military equipment.

14 When that happens, many people will rebel against the southern king. Some violent men among the Israelites will revolt against him, but he will defeat them. However, this will help make happen the things I am showing you. 15 Then the northern king will invade the southern kingdom. His soldiers will attack a city that has strong walls around it. They will capture it by piling up dirt against its walls. The northern army will be so strong that the southern army will not be able to defend that city, even with its best troops. 16 The northern king who is attacking will succeed in his plans. The southern king will not be able to oppose him. His army will occupy the beautiful land of Israel, and he will have the power to destroy it. 17 Then the northern king will determine to invade the southern kingdom with as strong an army as he can form from his kingdom. He will bring a peace treaty and make the southern king agree to it. He will allow the southern king to marry his daughter, but he will want his daughter to work for him against her husband. But this plan will not succeed, so it will not help him. 18 The northern king will then attack the regions by the sea, and he will conquer many of them. This will shame the rulers that controlled those regions. But a military commander from another kingdom will defeat him. That will shame the northern king instead. 19 The northern king will have to return to the strong forts in his own land. But he will die there, and that will be the end of him.

20 The king who rules after him will send one of his officials to collect tribute from Judea, the most glorious part of his kingdom. But after a few years, that king will die. He will not die in battle or because people rebel angrily against him; instead, someone will murder him.

21 The king who rules after him will be an evil man. He will not deserve to become king, since he will not be the son of the previous king. He will come when people do not expect it, and he will become king by making secret plots. 22 Great armies will oppose him, but he will defeat them and destroy them. He will also remove God’s high priest. 23 The rulers of other nations will make treaties with him, but he will betray them. He will begin with a small army, but he will become very powerful. 24 When people are not expecting it, he will capture the most fertile regions in the southern kingdom. The kings who ruled the northern kingdom before him had not been able to do that, but he will do it. He will reward his troops and supporters with valuable possessions that he takes from those regions. He will make plans to capture the cities in the southern kingdom that have walls around them. But he will pursue those plans only for a short time.

25 The northern king will feel strong and confident, and he will gather a large army to attack the southern king. The southern king will gather a very large army so that he can fight against him. But he will lose the battle because some of his officials will betray him. 26 Some of his own royal officials will help destroy him. The northern king will defeat his army, and many of his soldiers will die. 27 Then the northern king and the southern king will meet together to make a peace treaty. But each one will be trying to trick the other, so they will lie to each other. However, neither one will get what he wants, because God has decided what will ultimately happen. 28 The northern king will then return to his own land. He will take away many valuable things that his army has captured. He will be hostile to the Jewish people, and he will harm them on his way back to his land.

29 At the time that God has determined, the northern king will invade the southern kingdom again. But this time he will not be successful as he was before. 30 An army will sail across the sea to oppose him. This will terrify hm, and he will have to retreat. This will make him very angry, and so he will harm the Jewish people again as he retreats. He will favor those Jews who no longer obey the agreement between Yahweh and the Israelites. 31 The northern king will send his army to make the temple ritually unclean. They will prevent the priests from offering the regular sacrifices to Yahweh each morning and evening. They will put something disgusting in the temple that makes it unclean.

32 Some Jews will be wickedly disobeying the agreement with Yahweh. The northern king will deceive them so that they become loyal to him. But other Jews will still be loyal to Yahweh, their God. They will firmly oppose him. 33 Some wise Jewish leaders will help other Jews recognize that they should resist the northern king. But for a short time, the northern king’s soldiers will be able to kill them with their swords or by burning them. They soldiers will take some of them as prisoners, and they will steal their possessions.

34 While the Jews who are loyal to Yahweh are suffering in this way, some people will help them a little bit. However, some of them will not help them sincerely. 35 Some of those wise leaders will die. But as a result, other Jews will live in a way that honors Yahweh even more. These things must happen at the time when God has determined, so this suffering will continue until God ends it.

36 This northern king will do whatever he wants to do. He will boast and say that he is greater than any god. He will even say bad things about Yahweh, the one true God. He will succeed until God has finished punishing his people for their sins. That is because God will do what he has announced. 37 This northern king will no longer worship the gods that his ancestors worshiped. He will also not worship the god that many women adore. Because he will think that he is greater than any god, he will not worship those gods. 38 Instead, he will honor a god that he thinks will help him win wars. His ancestors did not worship that god, but he honors it with gifts of gold, silver, jewels and other expensive items. 39 He will ask that foreign god to help him conquer strong fortresses. He will greatly honor those who obey him as their king. He will make them rule over many people, and to reward them, he will give them property.

40 When all of these events I am describing are about to end, the southern king will attack the northern king. The northern king will fight back against him furiously. His soldiers will be driving chariots and riding horses and traveling in a fleet of ships. His army will invade many countries. It will spread all over those countries like a flood. 41 The northern king will invade the beautiful land of Israel. His soldiers will kill many people. But the Edomites, Moabites, and most of the Ammonites will survive his attack. 42 The northern king will invade many countries. He will even defeat the kingdom of Egypt. 43 The northern king will become the owner of gold and silver treasures and other valuable items that belonged to the Egyptians. The Libyans and Cushites will obey him as their king. 44 But he will become very frightened when he hears reports about what is happening in the east and in the north. He will become very angry, and he will lead his army to defeat his enemies and destroy them completely. 45 The northern king will set up his royal tents in the area between the sea and the mountain in Jerusalem where Yahweh’s holy temple is. But that is where he will die. No one will be able to help him so that he does not die.

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