Chapter 128

¹ Having then ceased from the subject before him, after teaching us with all exactness the assurance of the things to come, the prophet passed again to the kingdom of the Persians and the Greeks, recounting to us another vision, which came to pass and was fulfilled in its own times, that by this, having established us as faithful, he might be able to present us still more faithful to God with regard to the things that are to come.

² For he speaks thus: In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared to me, I, Daniel, after the one that appeared to me at the first. And I was in Susa the palace, which is in the country of Elam, and I was on the Ubal. And I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, one ram standing on the Ubal, and it had high horns, and the one was higher than the other, and the high one was rising up at the last. And I saw the ram butting toward the sea and the north and the south; and all the beasts will not stand before it, and there was none that could deliver out of its hand; and it did according to its will and was magnified. And I was considering, and behold, a he-goat of the goats came from the southwest over the face of all the earth, and the goat had a horn between its eyes, and it came to the ram that had the horns, which I had seen standing before the Ubal, and it ran at it in the fury of its strength. And I saw it reaching the ram, and it was enraged at it and struck the ram, and broke both its horns, and there was no strength in the ram to stand before it; and it cast it to the ground and trampled it, and there was none that could deliver the ram out of its hand. And the he-goat of the goats was magnified exceedingly, and when it grew strong its great horn was broken, and four horns came up beneath it toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth one strong horn, and it was magnified exceedingly toward the south and toward the host; and it was magnified up to the host of heaven; and it fell upon the earth from the host and from the stars, and trampled them. And until the commander-in-chief should rescue the captivity, and through him the sacrifice was disturbed and came to pass and prospered for him, and the holy place shall be made desolate; and sin was given against the sacrifice, and righteousness was cast to the ground, and it acted and prospered. And I heard one holy one speaking, and one holy one said to a certain one—the phelmouni—who was speaking: Until when shall the vision stand, and the sacrifice that is taken away, and the sin of desolation that is given, and the holy place and the host be trampled together? And he said to him: Until evening and morning, one thousand three hundred days, and the holy place shall be restored.